It's Christmas once again, and all around there's lights, food, song and cheer. Yet somehow the hustle and bustle only makes you more depressed and lonely. Do not fear; you are not alone! The holiday blues isn't uncommon, and there are lots of ways you can beat them and have more than a merry Christmas.

1. Know why you are sad.

Is it because of work, family, or the weather? Many people often find themselves feeling low for no apparent reason, but believe it or not, there is always a reason – you only need to find out what it is. Take time to reflect; stay in a quiet corner and allow yourself to think about what's really bothering you. Make a list of everything that's been troubling you for the past few days, the past year, or even your whole life. Understanding the "little details" can actually help to make you see things in perspective, and give you an idea how serious your melancholy is.

2. Accept, forgive, move on.

They say it's never easy to forgive (and forget), but the one reason it's so difficult to do is because we haven't first learned to accept that the thing happened at all. Whatever is making you unhappy is done and cannot be undone, and the only thing you can do now is to move on. However, before you can get to that stage, you must try and forgive yourself – for being weak and getting hurt; for letting another person make a fool of you; for not being able to stop something on time, when you felt you could.

Once you've learned to forgive yourself, it is only then that you can learn to forgive whoever or whatever has caused the pain. By this time, it will be easier to move on.

3. Practice empathy.

Now that you know the reason behind your blues and what to do about it, practice spreading cheer to others whom you think are in the same situation as you. Visit an orphanage; do a good deed for a total stranger; share a listening ear with a hapless neighbor. Or spare some time with the people close to you – send Christmas cards and letters to friends, or save one night where you can watch a Christmas movie with the family.

Christmas should be a happy time for everyone, so even with the blues you can still enjoy the season. All it takes is a little love and patience – especially on yourself.

Best wishes to you all for happy time with families
Trish

Top search engine Google has announced that their latest search algorithm changes are intended to favor sites with original content over sites that reproduce content produced by others, in an attempt to reduce spam sites or sites that seek to improve their rankings in order to get sales from advertising such as adsense.

As a result, many sites that consist mainly or solely on automatically generated content,  such as articles, videos or news stories already ‘out there’ will suffer much lower rankings than in the past.

Naturally, Google wants to stay as the No. 1 search engine and to keep that slot, they aim to give searchers, their customers, the best quality search results.

There is nothing more irritating than to click on a link that takes you to a site that tells you nothing about what you’re looking for. I’m sure we’ve all had that experience, so these changes are welcomed for this reason.

However, the changes may well have a big impact on those who have sites  with some reproduced content on them. If you are one of those, then a post yesterday by Gail Bottomley called Duplicate Content – No Longer Allowed can help you fix things up. There is a great deal of particulary good content there as well as the replay of her webinar on the subject. I watched the webinar live and found it particularly helpful and positive.

Any changes to reduce spam either on websites or in our inboxes are to be welcomed and anyway,  it is believed that these latest changes in Google will probably not be noticed by most viewers.

Flooding in Brisbane & surrounding areas (Queensland, Australia)

My city is in the midst of the worst flood since 1974. The death toll has reached 14, mostly from the torrent that originated in Toowoomba & swept through the Lockyer valley, upstream from Ipswich & Brisbane, so although we have very serious flooding in the city, we had plenty of warning so little loss of life or serious injury. However, the amount of warning is no compensation for the approx 20,000 people in 30 suburbs whose homes have been inundated with smelly brown, water.

I’m lucky to be in a higher area. My place is 100 yards off  a major road which is flooded down the end about 1km from me. The store I buy my elctronic goods from just down there had water nearly to the roof & it is on a high bit. When I saw that shown in an aerial view from the TV chopper this morning, it really threw me as I didn’t think the water would reach there at all.

They’re asking people not to go sightseeing, so it’s a strange feeling, on the one hand watching the grim scenes on TV but on the other, from where I live and the places I have to go for work, life is seemingly normal.  However, for the thousands and thousands of people with water through their homes or businesses, it certainly is a major disaster. And it’s not just here, NSW and Victoria still have the rain and the water that fell to the west of the ranges.

Especially hard hit are some of the smaller towns in the north and the west who have already had big floods since Christmas, have just cleaned up and now have to start all over again.

The cost of the cleanup for flooding on this scale is massive and many of the victims will suffer severe financial hardship. Any donations you are able to make would be received gratefully. Here is the link to the QLD Govt flood relief appeal www.qld.gov.au. Donations can be made online, by phone, in person, internet banking or mail. Our hearts go out to all who are suffering.

One of the people I admire in the internet marketing industry is Randolf (Randy) Smith, one of many internet marketers out there who genuinely want to help others to succeed. Randy’s blog called “Randy’s Ramblings” is one that I read on a regular basis because it is down to earth, humorous and helpful. You won’t get any bullsh.. on this blog – Randy tells it like he sees it and if he doesn’t think a new product would be useful, he’ll say so or else it just won’t be mentioned at all.

Randy has, or should I say had, a number of websites and products but in early October, his sites were hacked and all his domains stolen. To read the story behind this nightmare, visit the blog at http://randolfsmith.com

If you feel sick, as I did, that one human could treat another in this way, just take note of the effort Randy put in to try to put right all the wrong being done to his customers, a time consuming and costly endeavour, and you’ll realise that this is a man that just won’t give in, he’ll keep doing what he believes is right. This is a man worth keeping in mind to buy products and services from.

Once he gets everything back up and running, there will again be links on his blog to his many services. In the meantime, here are the ones I have used and recommend:

Sales Letter ABC – www.salesletterabc.com
7 Key Elements – www.7keyelements.com
More Monthly (stolen) – now called More Monthly Plus – www.moremonthlyplus.info (more info on this site on my Online Resources Page http://trishfindlay.com/online-business-resources)

I have not included an affiliate link in the list above, so I won’t profit if you buy from Randy, but I believe he deserves a break, so if what he offers is useful to you, buy from the man!

Best wishes
Trish

P.S. – there is always something to be learned from someone else’s misfortune, so to all out there with an internet business of any kind, make sure you back up your sites and your lists. You’ll be glad you did if a hacker comes your way, too.

Hi Everyone

Today I discovered Kiva, a marvellous method of helping people in other countries who are helping themselves. You can lend amounts as low as $25, making it possible for most people in western countries to help.

It is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe

Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses

The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding – not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community.

Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

Kiva partners with existing expert microfinance institutions. In doing so, they gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide.

Kiva’s partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but the microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.

Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. They are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way.

To learn more, go to the following site:

http://www.kiva.org/about/how