Everything went very well. It was a quick labor. He is very healthy and my wife is doing well. As I write this post on my MacBook Pro in our hospital recovery room, we are just a few hours away from heading home. Tonight will be our first night home with him – and our two year old.

Our first night home with my daughter was adventurous. Doing this again with her now being 2 years old is going to make this interesting. Obviously, we want to make our daughter feel as if she is part of the team. It is important for her to help with Nathan and I want to make sure she doesn’t feel left out or jealous. But, it is something all parents deal with with the second child. We’ll figure it out.

It’ll also be interesting for me personally as I seek to balance all this out with my business life. I have a couple business trips coming up very soon, plus a business to run. I can’t sit in my office during the day as usual, so I’ll be attempting to do both as well as I can.

So, stage one of our little adventure is over. On to the next stage – life with two kids.

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You know I’m leading up to something. I have put on my marketer’s cap. The list has gotten a bit noisy. Yeah, I know. It is part of the process.

Everything will quiet down again once the club doors close. I’ll continue to provide my usual free blog content. Those bloggers who decided to take a step further and join the Blog Masters Club will continue to work with me as I teach them the most in-depth course on blogging as a real business which is available anywhere (no exaggeration).

Tomorrow is the big webinar. It is free for everybody and I hope you can make it.
RSVP For The Webinar Now

Space is limited. I’m not sure if we’ll tap the limits of GotoWebinar, but you never know. It is tomorrow night at 8PM EST. If you are at all interested in making money as a blogger and learning about the opportunities for us moving forward, then I invite you to RSVP. Please don’t RSVP if you know you can’t make it at that time. I want to conserve space for people who can be there with me in real time. 622 people have already decided to join me tomorrow night. 1,000 is my cap, imposed on me by GotoWebinar.

Before that, though, I wanted to get something off my chest. This is something I feel very strongly about.

The Curse of Cynicism

Chances are you’ve gotten some of these emails from me or others and you’ve said, “Heh, he just wants to sell me something.” Or…, “This is how he makes his money – selling people on how to make money.”

Have I guessed correctly? If so, its OK. I don’t take it personally.

It is natural to many to be naturally cynical. To suspect people who have something to offer you. To suspect all offers of help.

I know plenty of bloggers, too, and I know that many bloggers get a bad taste in their mouth when it comes to marketing.

My response to this would simply be my own history.

A Little Story

See, I used to be the type of blogger who would watch the so-called “internet marketers” talk about big bucks. Sounded good, of course. But, after awhile I got cynical. I sat there in my cocoon and just figured it out for myself.

I tried, anyway.

Sure, I did fine. I mean, I managed to get my tech blog off the ground and have it making some money. I could even live off of it (sorta), but I had to supplement that income with doing web development work for clients on a per-hour basis. In other words, I was a part-time blogger, and a part-time hourly boy.

In 2006, even though I was doing pretty well compared to many other bloggers, I was still not exactly where I wanted to be. And I still had to supplement my income doing other things I didn’t enjoy as much.

I had figured a lot out, though. The dot-com bust around 2000 really forced me to make some moves and learn some things. The lessons I learned are still invaluable to me today (I describe those more in the Blueprint report).

In 2007, things began to shift for me.

And, you know what?

The first step in that shift was to suspend my disbelief. To suspend my skepticism.

And I did that by actually beginning to LOOK at these internet marketers. Did they have something to offer me that was actually valuable? Some did, others didn’t. Some offered real value, others over-hyped themselves.

The journey took me through a few products that I bought and ultimately to the house of a fairly well-known marketer. There, in his house in Scottsdale, AZ, I had a POWERFUL realization.

I realized I was sitting on a huge business model – BLOGGING – but that I was not doing it right. I had blinders on and it was keeping me from realizing the full scope of blogging as a real business model.

What really kicked me in the behind to make it happen for real was the birth of my daughter in December 2007. Elyana was beautiful (just like my wife), and she was my responsibility.

I was a blogger. Most people scoff at that as a profession. Just try getting a home mortgage or something and entering in the word “Blogger” as occupation on your application!

But, the necessity of needing to increase my income in order to provide for my growing family made me get into the mood of “kicking ass and taking names”.

I brought my income up to the $140K level for a couple years, then last year I broke through the $200K level for the first time.

But, it all started with…

Suspending Disbelief

…And accepting the help and knowledge of those who were more expert that I was.

My point here is – Don’t trap yourself under the sand of skepticism.

I do have something to offer you, yes. I do plan to charge accordingly for it. Some, perhaps, might even think it is too expensive. But, it isn’t – not this. I believe it is a POWERFUL course borne out of my 12 years of blogging and figuring out the right ropes. Any blogger who goes through my course and uses it is going to see great results in traffic and income.

My approach to blogging is different. It is realistic. As my good friend, Grant Griffiths (founder of the Headway Theme), said, I have turned the usual blogging course on it’s head.

I did not make my money in blogging by telling other people how to make money blogging. I did it in a completely different niche – technology.

But, my skepticism, and my “do it all by myself” approach to everything was holding me back until I just made the decision to knock it off and try something else.

After all, the only sure-fire way to have nothing new happen is to not do anything differently.

The Family Grows Again

I am gearing up to make 2010 rock even more. That same burst of necessity that was originally sparked by the birth of my daughter, Elyana, is about to be reinvigorated…

In roughly 3 weeks, my wife and I are expecting our second child. A boy, this time.

Now, I’ve got 2 kids riding on blogging to support them. And so it continues…

I hope you’ll join me and make 2010 superb.

The Blog Masters Club doors open on Tuesday, January 26th, around 12PM EST.

But, tomorrow, I’ve got a LIVE webinar for you. 8PM EST. To attend, you need to RSVP right here:
RSVP For The Webinar Now

You’ll want to be at this webinar. Trust me.

I’ll see you tomorrow night.

Oh, and I ask that you comment on this post and let me know… Are you with me in suspending disbelief and in making 2010 frickin ROCK?!

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Well, today I have another one for you. In this video, you’re going to take a little car trip with me.

That’s right, we’re going to hop in the car together and ride down to the post office for…. what else? To see if I have any checks waiting for me.

When you run an internet-based business, you do make real money. Most of it comes in online and goes directly into my account. But, some companies send me checks and, for that, I use the PO Box.

I hope you enjoy the video. I had some fun getting a little creative with iMovie.

Click Here To Watch The Video.

Next week is when the fun starts. Be sure to RSVP for my LIVE webinar on Monday, at 8PM EST.

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2009 was my first full year blogging about blogging. I began this blog in 2008. Before that, there was nothing but a placeholder page here with goofy images of myself.

As my long-time readers know, I’ve been blogging since before this was even called blogging. However, I was a tech blogger. I managed to make my living at it fairly comfortably. Then, in 2008, a series of events led me to the idea of starting a second blog where I would talk about what I did for a living.

It has been SO rewarding. I really enjoy helping and interacting with others with the same goals as I have. I love helping bloggers realize their goals in this medium. So, this has been very rewarding for me on a personal basis.

And, yes, I’m not going to lie, it has been rewarding on a financial basis as well. This move has brought my online business in a different direction than it was and the effect on income has been a positive one. I may provide a final year-end income report later (it has been awhile since I’ve posted one), but I will say that I surpassed $200K in gross revenue in 2009, increasing my income about $60K over 2008.

I have big plans for 2010, and I want you to be involved with them. I’ll post some of my 2010 goals a little later, but overriding all of it is this….

YOU.

That’s right, because I wouldn’t succeed in anything if I was not providing value to you.

Money, traffic – all the things we like as bloggers – all of it comes from delivering a result to your customers (actual customers as well as blog readers).

Our job, as bloggers, is to take our market and provide them with results. And, even higher up the totem poll, to give them HAPPINESS.

That’s what all people are after. More happiness.

So, the question has to be asked…

HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

What would you like to see from me in the coming year which would really help you? How can I make you happy?

I hope this doesn’t seem like a corny question. I could have asked this in a private survey to my list (and maybe I will), but I figured just starting a public discussion would be interesting. And, hell, maybe some other probloggers out there who blog about blogging can learn from my audience. We’ll see.

So, the ball is in your court. Now is a time to put your order into David’s kitchen. Let me know what I can “”cook” for you this next year.

I look forward to helping you in 2010.

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My daughter wants what she wants. And, dammit, she’s gonna get it.

Case in point… while I was typing up some posts for this week, my daughter popped onto the couch. She came over to me, put her head right in front of my views of the computer, gave me a gorgeous little smile, then proceeded to grab my chin and turn my head toward her. She wanted my attention! And she got it!

Another instance… she is playing with her crayons. She loves to draw endless circles all over her notebooks. However, she wants mommy involved. She wants interaction. "Mommy!", she says. Over and over again. Then when mommy looks at her, she just keeps drawing more circles. Target acquired.

It is easy to say "Awww, she’s just being a cute little kid.". And, of course, you’d be right. However, I admire her persistence. I think her persistence serves as a great lesson for the rest of us. But, it isn’t just persistence…

Who Says Adults Are Smarter?

When I look at my little girl, I see a pure joy of life. She doesn’t take things seriously. She wants what she wants, and the idea of defeat hasn’t really crossed her mind. She is happy. Her smile lights up a room.

For some reason, people seem to lose that outlook as they get older? Is it because we’ve gotten smarter? Is it because we’re more enlightened on the "realities of life"?

My daughter hasn’t agreed to failure. Adults have. As we live through life, we stack up little failures. Some big and some small. In order to justify our own failures, I believe we take ourselves down a notch. We blame others. We downplay our own abilities. We make others the cause over our lives. Before long, life can look fairly bleak.

Life is one big game. The moment you don’t play it like one, you’re letting it play you.

For my daughter, life is a game. Today, it is drawing circles. Tomorrow, who knows? But, that same determinism that makes her, without question, grab my chin and make me look at her will serve her well in life.

We all have that same determinism within us. We all have the same capability of enjoying life.

When we look at a child, should we look at that happiness as just childish naivety? Perhaps, instead, we should realize that our children are probably a lot closer to the way life should be, and that perhaps we have caused ourselves to stop viewing it that way as we got older.

We’ve forgotten.

My daughter has it figured out. And my job, as her Dad, is to do everything I can to further her current mindset into her future.

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My life is awesome. The fact that I make my living doing THIS for a living? [pinches self again]

Most of all, I’m thankful for…

My family is always top of the list for me. Unpictured is my son, who is due in February. I’m thankful for him, too. Can’t wait to meet him.

I’m thankful to all of my readers and subscribers – that’s you. It is you guys who continue to support me in this business. Without you, I wouldn’t have a business.

I’m thankful for living in a country where we have the opportunity to prosper and make our own way. Let’s hope we can keep it that way despite some efforts to the contrary. This is a great country and there are a lot of other countries where doing what I do for a living would be much more difficult.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Let’s not forget what this day is really about.

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As my subscribers know, I flew to Las Vegas last week for Pubcon, a leading conference for the search marketing and SEO industry. I had high hopes and was expecting a good time.

Day 1 went well. Picked up some good tips, took some notes and met up with a few people. That night, I decided to get some work done rather than attend the Pubcon party because they were doing it at a night club. I don’t care how cool people think they are at parties at a night club, I find it counter-intuitive for a conference built around networking. It is so loud you can’t talk to anybody. So screw it.

I decided to hit the Grand Buffet at the MGM Grand for dinner that evening. Yes, I overate. But, damn was it good. I even picked up a ticket to see Cirque Du Solei Ka at the MGM the next evening.

Fast forward to about 3AM the next morning. Nausea. Vomiting. Living over the toilet and holding a lot of unflattering body positions. Not cool. I was sick as a dog. I got no more sleep because I literally had to get up every 20-30 minutes to puke.

The next day, I was clearly too sick to attend day 2 of Pubcon, so I camped out in my hotel room all day. I “enjoyed” some personal time… just me, the bed, and my hotel toilet. That toilet and I got to be friends.

The only time I stepped out of my hotel room during the day was to walk over to the CVS in front of the Monte Carlo to buy some water. I thought going for a walk might be therapeutic. Well, I ended up throwing up on the street. That went well.

That evening, I was feeling a bit better. Nausea was gone, but I still felt a bit weak and my stomach was fragile. Absolutely zero appetite.

Next day, I was pretty much OK. I had very little appetite. The only thing I wanted was soups. But, I felt good enough to attend a few sessions of Day 3 of Pubcon. I wasn’t worried about being contagious because I’m QUITE sure this was nothing but food poisoning.

So, basically, I flew 2,000 miles just to get sick, puke my guts out, attend barely even half of a conference, and fly home. I was so tired of Vegas that I was just GIDDY to get the hell out of that city and come home.

Now, what about Pubcon? Did I like it?

I have to make an effort not to judge the event in light of what I went through in my hotel room, but I will say that Pubcon is a great conference – IF you are really into search marketing and SEO.

I was under the impression beforehand that it was a more mixed crowd. It really wasn’t. It is a very different crowd than that of a conference like BlogWorld, for instance. At the end of the day, and all sickness aside, I really don’t think Pubcon is worth the trip if you are a blogger. It is too focused on SEO. For that reason, I likely will not attend Pubcon again.

Here is what I learned from my experience:

1. I now know what Pubcon is about and have decided that while it is a great conference for it’s target audience, it wasn’t valuable enough to ME to warrant the trip.
2. Stop abusing my body because it WILL catch up to me.

In fact, I’m using the experience to jumpstart a whole new diet for myself. Perhaps more on that later.

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OK, now that that is out of the way, yes, I was provided a great opportunity to check out Mystere while I was in Las Vegas for Blogworld. This show is performed inside Treasure Island.

Here is my review: “WOW!”

Simply put, there are things done in this show that I’m pretty sure God never intended the human body to do.

First, when the show began, it was unofficial. The spotlights came on and moved around the audience a little. It was almost as if they were just setting up the lights. Soon, I realized they were focusing on this man with spiked white hair and a black suit. He acts like an usher. He’ll take your tickets and act like he’s walking you to your seat, then he’ll just walk off with them. He does other things throughout the show to mess with the audience. It is quite funny, actually.

The show starts with a baby carriage and a dance which represents the birth of a baby (or so it appeared). Then, this small woman plays the part of the baby. Complete with baby sounds. She is a constant source of comic relief throughout the show.

In fact, that is one of the things I like about this show. There are elements of comedy throughout, mixed in with the art and the gymnastics. The show takes you from moments of wow to laughter, back and forth until the end. The audience participation built into the show keeps you on your toes.

The set is incredible. This is one of the amazing things about a Cirque Du Soleil show which is stationary. The theater is essentially built for their show. In this case, the stage moves all over the place, up and down. The roof of the theater is customized to allow the high-wire acts that occur high above the stage. It is really quite impressive.

Ticket pricing starts at $69 and goes up from there, depending on your seat. My seat was pretty awesome, however it didn’t look like there would be a bad seat. The theater really wasn’t that large, so no matter where you are, you’re not too far from the stage. A word of warning, however: If you sit in the seats near the stage, you stand a risk of being part of the show.

Mystere was like a moving Salvador Dali painting. It is pure art mixed with gymnastics that will amaze you, combined with pure entertainment. These guys know how to put on a show.

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I’m going to have a son.

My wife will be putting a scan of the ultrasound on her blog, and I’m not going to steal her thunder on that one.

I’m excited. I was actually 100% fine either way. Had no preferences. For a father, there is something special about “daddy’s little girl”. Yet, there is also something that a father and son share that is unique. Either way, I’m good.

It is exciting to have one of each, however. Best (and worse) of both worlds. It is the full spectrum of child ups and downs. It will, no doubt, be an adventure.

As my brother said:

Most couples want one of each – you guys are very lucky in the kid department. So easy, so quick, and good results.

He also said…

It’s a Risley, must have been easy to tell.

Hey, that’s just how we roll.

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The biggest thing that motivated me to make a change was that I was getting really tired of the dark background. It made the site look crunched and lacking space.

I’ve also made another notable design decision: I’ve decided to make the homepage more of a traditional blog layout. Rather than the multi-column homepage, I will now have a single column of new posts with more content on the homepage itself. I think this will allow me the flexibility to have shorter, more current posts to the blog without the need to make it a “feature post” when it isn’t really worthy of the title.

I may make a few more changes to things. I may reintroduce the rotating photographs at the top of the site. I may play around with the logo some more (I’m definitely not a graphics artist).

Feel free to share your opinion in the comments. And if you notice something not working, let me know. I’ve tested the design in Firefox, IE7 and Safari and it seems to work just fine here. But, browsers will be browsers.

Enjoy your weekend.

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