Randy’s Ramblings 3rd January 2012
In this Post
* Catch Up
* Sunshine Award 
* Coming Soon – New Cloaker with extras
* Next Meet Up – SATURDAY!
* Sign Off
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* Catch Up
Hi Everyone
Welcome to 2012
I hope it’s everythng you wish it to be.
So where do I start with my first post of the year?…. Well for one thing I wont sit here and details everything I got for Christmas or everything I bought for family and friends…lol
We had a great time and everyone loved everything they got… Myself included
We also had a great New Years Party and missed the morning of the new year completely…lol
So now it’s back to ‘work’ for everyone… some online some still juggling between a day job and their internet hopes, So thre last thing I’m going to do is start listing my hopes and goals for the coming year… They would hardly be relevant to you now would they? 
What’s important is that you have a plan in place to get you to where you want to be a year from now. So I hope you’ve found the right info and have a good idea of what you need to do!
Whichever route to internet freedom you take – just remember to focus, stick at it, and only spend on the things that will help you get there
Meanwhile – I hope that my ‘Ramblings’ continue to provide useful tips and content to aid your personal journey
Speaking of which, that leads me nicely into my first post about me getting an award!
Yep – it’s all about me me me…lol
Seriously though, do check out the post below to see how this award actually helps a bunch more people. You see it’s an award given by readers of blogs to other bloggers who’ve helped them and probvide good content.
So the reader has obviously benefited or they wouldn’t pass on the award in the first place.
Those who then get nomiated befit from yet another backlink & traffic.
And those who visit get more people who have been recognised as good bloggers to gain more useful insights and tips from:)
Basically another viral form of generating traffic, links and goodwill… win win win all round!
So let me get into it and see if you all can benefit from my award
Chat soon
Randy
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* Sunshine Award
Here it is… My Sunshine Award
So what’s it all about?
Well firstly, There is no prize or trophy attached to the award, :( (though you can copy the cool graphic to use)
It is more about recognising bloggers whose positivity and creativity have inspired others in the blogging community. To be awarded the Sunshine Award from established bloggers that we hold in high regard really is an honour and to be publically recognised on their blog is a very much appreciated backlink…lol
So THANK YOU VERY MUCH Barry Wells for passing this along to me
(I did say on his blog that I’d throttle him for giving me yet more workload…haha – I was of course only Joking, as I do feel honoured to have been mentioned, and I seriously appreciate the link)
So what else is involved to make this interesting, possibly viral and pass on the gratitude for others who I hold in high regard?
The 3 Rules of the Award
There are 3 rules to the award which are:
1: To thank the person(s) that gave the award.
2: To Answer 10 questions.
3: Pass the award on to 10 deserving bloggers.
I have already thanked Barry for the award, but thanks again. It really does mean a lot to me, thank you
Now on to answer the Ten Questions, and in typical Randys Ramblings Style – there is no straight forward answer from me to many of them….haha
The 10 questions are:
1. Favourite colour – If I’m wearing it – Black (even though Black technically isn’t a colour), If it’s for a website, Blue. For Decor, warm reds. On Rachel, well anything really But I do like her in blacks and reds… so I guess it’s about the circumstances of use of the colour… lol
2. Favourite animal – Tiger, oh and Wolves too, but if I have to pick one a Tiger would be it (which also happens to be my Chinese year of birth)
3. Favourite number – 8 (also popular in the far east) but it has always been a number that featured in my life as a favourite since I had it on my Basket Ball strip way back in school!
4. Favourite drink – Quality Coffee or Vodka & Coke, well no one specified what type of drink?
5. Facebook or Twitter – Facebook for me, as twitter doesn’t alow me to ramble past 140 characters… haha
6. My passion – EASY .. Loving Life, Living it with Passion, And Passing that Passion on!
7. Giving or receiving gifts – Of course I like to receive, but you can’t beat seeing someone face light you when you give
8. Favourite day – Any that ends in a Y .. I love everyday of my life, and being an IMer, it doesn’t make a difference what day of the week it is when you’re free from the j.o.b.
9. Favourite flower – I guess I’d say a Rose… That’s what I used to buy Rachel regularly before she educated me into replacing flowers with SHOES whenever I want to treat her just for being her!
10. Favourite food – A little more boring here… I love all sorts of nations foods, But given a free choice (without me having to cook it), I reckon I’d go for a full Sunday Dinner – Roast beef, Yorkshire puddings and Steamed Vegetables.
See – Told you, I don’t ramble as much on purpose… there really wasn’t a single straight answer in there! haha
And now for the harder part…. Not hard in picking people to pass the award to – just hard in limiting it to just ten!
10 Deserving Bloggers To Pass The Award To
I know I should give reasons etc. (judging by other peoples posts), But I know my rambling would end up making this an ebook…lol – So I’ll just give you their names and links.
As for descriptions – these are all people whom I’ve met online initially, some I’ve now met in person and even worked with, but all of them I now consider friends, and I always read their posts. Hence it’s easy to link to them as I know you’ll not be lead up any wrong paths if you visit and become another new friend
I’m not sure they’ll all join in and post about the award as some are very busy people these days… But in terms of learning from them – you wont go wrong with these guys and gals!
So that’s my list of people I’m passing the award to, They have ALL made more than one useful post, All great people and knowledgable in what they do, and what’s more – they bring Sunshine into their readers lives by adding quality info to their blogs.
I know some have already been awarded before and I suspect some wont have time to even acknowledge this award due to their continuing to have other more helpful posts to create and add. But I hope you do get chance to check them all out and let them know they’ve been mentioned
Phew – that lot took a while
Next is a quick mention of something coming soon (and a chance to get some money links in…haha)
Moving On
Randy
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* Coming Soon – New Cloaker with extras
Do you know what… I’ve just seen how long I’ve been typing away, So I think I’ll leave you in suspense a little longer … or should I?
OK – tell you what, I’ll show off a Small Part of a new cloaking tool I’ve helped develop.
(when I say helped – I obviously mean I have tested and tried to break it, and added a few suggestions… lol)
I’ve teamed up with Simon Phillips ( a very techy friend), To add even more functionality to an idea for making a professional link cloaker that doesn’t require ANY techy skills – NOT EVEN how to create a database!
Basically – we’ve been testing and tweaking it for a few months, though we still have to create a salespage etc.
BUT – here’s why I’m showing a small part of what it can do now….
It gives me a chance to have some affiliate links in this post… haha
On a serious note – it’s a chance to show off a useful feature that is all done for you once you have the software…
You get to be able to create what we call ‘Hot Pages’
These are pages that allow you to send a page to your lists or put it on your blog that shows all the products you recommend by date or category
So without further ado – check these to see some extreme examples of a push button page creation based on cloaked links from within the software.
My Products Page:
http://randolfsmith.com/recommendz/RandysProducts.php
You get to pick the background colour, header, and when you create your links you can add your ‘HotPage’ text which is what you see on the page.
Another example would be to show a page by category….
In This Case – ALL the products I’ve recently created links for, and with No Header Image This Time – just to show the flexibility
http://randolfsmith.com/recommendz/ALL.php
And this example will look a bit daft…. But imagine at the end of the month recapping on all the products you’ve checked out during the month…
You could then send out a link like:
http://randolfsmith.com/recommendz/Jan.php
To list all your Hot Links for January (or whatever the current month is)
NOTE The Different background colours, Headlines, header images or not etc. – and please forgive the extreme use of colour in my examples…lol
OK – That got a few links online for you to click through, so I’ll leave it at that for today, as I’ve just had Rachel on the phone needing me… so I’m off
Just a quick reminder of the meet up and then I’ll save the post and pop back later to upload it
(back and about to upload this… after being a Taxi for an hour!! – Don’t you just love working from home )
Randy
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* Next Meet Up – SATURDAY
Here are the details for our First Meet Up in 2012
1pm til around 5pm, Saturday 7th January 2012:
http://www.randysmith.co.uk/NorthallertonMeets/booking.html
Venue:
The Oddfellows Arms
251 High Street,
Northallerton,
DL7 8DJ
Tel: (01609) 773018
Chips and Sandwiches for our consumption.
There will be a charge of around £25 per person to cover the costs.
Any issue – give me a shout:
http://www.RandolfSmith.com/support
Or Skype – randolf.smith
Get your ticket booked here
http://www.randysmith.co.uk/NorthallertonMeets/booking.html
You can find the dates etc. on the Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/NorthallertonMarketingMeetup
Cheers
Randy
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* Sign Off
****As ever – only spend your ca$h on things that WILL help you
(Not the stuff that Might One Day!)****
Til next time
To You and Yours,
Here’s hoping you’re
Loving Life, Living it with Passion, And Passing it on!
Warm Regards
Randy
If you survived my Rambles, pop your details in the boxes and I will email whenever I update my blog as well as send you a heap of Useful Marketing Gifts
I’ll email about this post tomorrow, but feel free to comment if you found it before my email
Cheers
Randy
RandySmith@InternetMarketingRambles recently posted..Sunshine Award And Happy 2012
Hi Randy and HNY 2012 – it feels like a great new year so far although I too slept in (this morning) and missed a chess tournament I was to play in – oof! I need more ‘me time’ haha! Well life’s what you make of it so let’s rock on 2012
Adwel Lo recently posted..How To Develop Your Success Mindset Exponentially In 2012!
Wow, two Sunshine awards in one week! Aren’t I lucky! Thanks for that, Randy, I really do appreciate it. I am not surprised you got passed an award, you really do deserve it as you help so many people both online and offline – I can truly testify to that. I will post about the award I have received from both you and Barry and I do hope to make the meet on Saturday as they are so very helpful to any marketer who attends. The link cloaker sounds just up my street as I have NO techie skills whatsoever!
Enjoy the journey.
Mandy
mandy@LearnToBlog recently posted..Calendars For Marketers
Hi Randy, Happy New Year mate
It’s good to hear that you had a good one and everyone around you enjoyed it. Mine was quiet, just as i like them, family around and smiles everywhere you turn.
So you were joking when you said you’d throttle me, thank heavens you pointed that out ha ha
You do so deserve it though Randy. People only have read your posts to see that you are constantly helping others with your advice, not to mention ALL the help that is done behind the scenes.
Thanks also for passing the Award back to me, it really does mean a lot Randy thanks you.
I really would like to attend one of your meet ups and may surprise you one of these days, I just need to sort out some wheels that’ll make the distance. It is certainly on my to do list.
I didn’t know you are an ex Basketball player. I start training again this coming Friday for my old wheelchair basketball team but having not played for the last few years i fear it’s going to be a painfull come back
I’ll let you know how it goes as long as I don’t fall out of my chair and break something.
Take care mate,
Barry
Barry Wells recently posted..Ending 2011 With A Smile and The Sunshine Award
Hey Randy,
Well, what a surprise….not! I can completely understand why you got given the Sunshine Award because you’re always helping people and giving unbiased reviews of products – not just pimping out your list like some people do.
So congratulations!
I hope you & your family had a great Xmas and New Year (what you can remember of it!) and I look forward to seeing / reading more of your ramblings in 2012.
Speak soon,
Nikki
Nikki (Purple Minxy Witch) recently posted..Happy New Year!
Hello Mr Randy!,
I just had a fantastic idea related to your link cloaker! I really like the concept.
What if you could have a border around each link? Like a box?
What if you could add a banner or image of the product aswell?? Maybe if we could add a small description in the box??
Food for thought??
Really like the concept though.
Could you use the concept to add the links to the bottom of download pages easy?
I am currently in the middle of putting some packages and products together and have had to manually add in my affiliate links etc. So this concept is right up my alley! lol
I have looked at instant bonus pages but I want to promote the products I want to promote, not what they suggest.
I hope everything is going well.
Speak soon
Jacinta
P.S Just to let you know, even though I am underground at the moment I still read your blog!!
Jacinta D recently posted..Raymond Aaron – 2011 Blueprint Seminar – Part 6A
Hi Jacinta,
Simple Simon here
(Randy’s tame techie partner LOL)
WOW! Thank you for your suggestions for the new link cloaker. They are Awesome!!
It is 9.50pm here in the UK and I have just finished coding in some of your ideas. The borders around the links work REALLY well! It makes a huge difference to the Hot Pages.
I have also added the ability to change the background colour of the links as well – when you have a border with a contrasting background color it really makes the box stand out!
I have, of course, coded it so that you can turn this facility on and off as you require.
I really need to stop coding for tonight now though LOL! Tomorrow I will be working on your other suggestions, especially the one that allows you to grab the links for use in your own download pages – I really love that one!
I will add that feature in the morning – It will also be really useful to be able to grab the list of links for insertion into emails as well.
Once again – thank you so much for your ideas.
Si.
Hi Simon,
If you want me to have a play with it let me know. The next 2 weeks I intend on getting a few products online and want to add affiliate links/banners to the download pages.
Glad you like my suggestions!
There is a product called ‘Instant Bonus Page’, which has the concept of promoting affiliate products in boxes at the bottom of our download pages. Tis a great product, however you only get to choose the programs to promote that are in the system as far as I know. (Well that was my experience with it a while ago)
If your system can do similar, plus if we can upload/add in our own choice of products that we want to promote as affiliate.
For example one one download page I might want to promote one of Randy’s products, John’s products and Dave’s products, on another download page I might want to promote one of Lee’s products, Alex’s products etc etc.
I would upload the banner of the product I want to promote (probably hosted on my domain or if your software includes the hosting of images side?), give a little personal blurb about the product etc with a nice border, position another affiliate offer underneath etc and then when the code is ready, save it and instal it on the download page.
Give instant bonus page a look, I think your concept will be better than instant bonus, especially if we can choose and promote what we want to promote and not be limited on choice.
If you need me to play let me know!
Cheers
Jacinta
Jacinta D recently posted..Raymond Aaron – 2011 Blueprint Seminar – Part 6A
Hi Jacinta,
Yup – It now does pretty much all you have suggested
I’ve even added an option to have a “dashed” border so you can make offers look like “coupons” – Personally I HATE dashed borders but I guess some people love ‘em!
You can add your own product links with text and/or graphics, categorise them into your own categories (IE: John’s products, Dave’s products etc…), Create “Hot Pages” based on date and/or category selection with customisable fancy borders, drop shadows etc etc…
You can even automagically generate gradient shaded headers and footers with you own colour schemes and text choices (for those of you who don’t have suitable headers and/or footers)!
Heck – for those people who don’t want all of the amazing functionality we even have a Mode button at the top of the page that flicks the system between SIMPLE and ADVANCED modes at the press of a button!
All of this and there is only ONE file to upload and NO DATABASE to create!!
I can get installation down to less than 2 minutes
It is simply a case of upload ONE file – browse to that file in your web-browser, choose a password and, voila, you’re done!
Si.
Simon Phillips recently posted..The Very Best WordPress Plugins
Cool!!
Looking Forward to using it!!
Jacinta D recently posted..2012 A Year Of New Beginnings
Cheers for all the comments Guys (& Gals), Much appreciated
(That’s defo not my department…lol)
And I’ll tell Simon to pop over and look at the cloaker suggestions too
Randy
RandySmith@InternetMarketingRambles recently posted..Sunshine Award And Happy 2012
Congrats on the award that you received! I’ll check the other bloggers that you’ve rewarded too. If you say they’re interesting, then I must read them too.
Robert@Best Vacuum 2012 recently posted..Hoover BH50030 Platinum LINX Pet Cordless Hand Vacuum Review
Hi Robert,
Sorry I can’t take that seriously – it’s a “Sucker”!!!
I know, I know – too flippant for my own good (but I’m advertising Dirt Devils!). haha
John
Happy New Year to you too, Randy
Congratulations on your award – very well deserved, in my opinion!
Sorry not to make the meet – too far especially in the winter lol
Hope you all have a great time.
Jennifer
Jennifer recently posted..101 List Building Tips – Dos and Don’ts
Hey Randy,
Just wanted to pop in and say Happy New Year!
Cheers for recommending me the ‘sunshine’ award, sounds like a cool idea!
If I was gonna give one it would be to you, as you’re always happy and positive
Keep up the great posts and content mate.
I’ll have to try and make it to one of your meet ups this year, I hear good things about them!
Regards,
Dave.
Dave Nicholson recently posted..Highlights of 2011 and $100 Gift for YOU!
Hi Randy
Happy 2012 to you and yours. Sounds like you had a great time!
Congratulations on your award, you certainly deserve it.
Dee
Dee recently posted..Happy 2012
Sunshine Award — aptly named. I remember several years ago when you spoke in your native Welsch (?) on a Skype conference call. Still brings a smile.
Continue to read your blogs regularly and plan to add the few from your list of 10 that I don’t read to my reading list.
Carol
Carol Smith recently posted..Internet Marketing Scam Artists
Happy New Year! I do hope that everybody will be more successful for this year 2012. I wonder who else would be able to get this award. Bloggers need to start to follow the requirements stated above to qualify in this kind of award.
Samantha@Best Gardening Tools recently posted..Black & Decker NST2018 Cordless Electric String Trimmer Review
This sunshine award is great idea and very humanistic also. I haven’t heard about it before. Did yo come up with idea?
Anna recently posted..dental surgery
My congratulations om your award!!!
Amanda@BuySellWordPress recently posted..WordPress Themes
Randy,
Happy New Year. Sounds like you had a great Christmas and New Year. Same here, I enjoyed Christmas and a relaxing New Years.
Thank you for nominating me for the “Sunshine Award”. I am honored that you would give it to me.
I like the new link cloaker. That will be a great tool when you get it done.
Have a great time at the meet up.
Dee Ann Rice
Dee Ann Rice recently posted..Just A Bit Of Sunshine
Hey Randy,
Happy New Year 2012. I think the sunshine award is a great idea and it’ll be interesting to read the posts going round.
Won’t be able to make this month’s meetup, but I’ll be there for the next one.
Good luck in 2012.
Des recently posted..How To Become More Focused In 2012
Hi Randy
Congratulations on getting the award, you thoroughly deserve it as
your always helping others and lighting up everyones life…
Awwwww and you nominated me, thank you soooooo much, I’m really honoured
and have a huge smile on my face now!
I’ve still got my chest infection so won’t be able to make the meet up tommorrow
so say hi to everyone from me and you can eat my chip butty (lol)
Take care and thanks for all your support
Dawn
Dawn Kay recently posted..Randy Smith Interview – Your Questions Answered
Cheers for the comments guys
– and yeah – I’ll be sure to have an extra chip butty Dawn! 
The cloaker is getting even better thanks to the suggestions from Jacinta
Shame Des and Dawn can’t make the meet up – it’ll be a quieter one without you guys
Later guys
–
Randy
P.S. Has everyone checked Dave Whitworths new traffic product – it’s really cool and does what it says on the package
http://randolfsmith.com/recommendz/30day/
RandySmith@InternetMarketingRambles recently posted..Sunshine Award And Happy 2012
Hi Randy
Congratulations on getting the award. And also congratulations on the coming year 2012. Keep up the good work. Your articles are always interesting to read.
Happy 2012, Randy! I enjoyed reading this post; it’s funny and informative. Congratulations on the Sunshine Award
That’s such a nice award; it’s like you are given that recognition for helping and making others happy. I would love to get my own Sunshine Award someday.
I’ve already set my goals for the new year and one of them is to engage more with fellow bloggers
Cheers!
Congrats Randy! there’s always something interested to read here.. more interesting
articles this year.. great job!
David recently posted..Cheap Interstate Removalists
well, i heard of this award somewhere before, just a virtual prize but it has a great value for us bloggers. Congratulation on getting the award, Randy, you really deserve it. Hoping someone will pass me the award someday.
Congrats on your sunshiny award, Randy! I really like the idea of the link cloaker with the extras, I can’t wait to see it working.
Emilia recently posted..dental implants
Hi Randy,
your sideboard must be getting full now with all these awards, but who has to dust them?
Seriously, congratulations, mate, you deserve it, and this year I wil definitely make it to Northallerton for a meet up,
Barry
Barry Ranns recently posted..7 Links Challenge
Wowl congratulations to your Sunshine Award! It’s a kind of respect, and you have really deserved that! You shoud be proud of it!
Cindy recently posted..Routine oral hygiene
Congratulations on your award Randy, you are one of a positive and great attitude and you greatly deserve this recognition for sure!
Andres Luna recently posted..How to Start Online Fast and Easy!
Hi Randy
This is my year – and it is going to be a great year for all action takers. We are now well and truly over the holiday period so now it is back to doing the hard work and reaping the rewards accordingly.
Great award – like the name “Sunshine Award”sounds like it brings brightness into other people’s lives.
To YOUR success
Sue
Sue McDonald recently posted..Secure Your Blog
Wow – you get busy for a few days and there’s a rush of comments…lol
Seriously – cheers for stopping by and adding your thoughts
And for all those expressing an interest in the Easy Cloaker – Simon has been adding so much more functionality after the suggestions made here it’s turned into a fantastic product that will soon be ready to be released…. Keep watching for more details
Randy
RandySmith@InternetMarketingRambles recently posted..Sunshine Award And Happy 2012
Yup – sure has Randy – It now goes WAY beyond what was ever intended in terms of features and goodies LOL!
Maybe soon though I can stop coding and be allowed out of my box… even a few minutes of the outside world would help…
Simon Phillips recently posted..The Very Best WordPress Plugins
Happy new year to you too! Congratulations on the Sunshine Award. How was the celebration?
Hi Randy,
Congrats for winning the sunshine award
Let us just hope that someday this award will have trophy or any gift certificate lol! Tiger? Wow that would be a cool pet right? 
Shirley J. Williams recently posted..Direct Sales opportunities
Congratulations to those who were able to receive the award. It simply shows how much you are appreciated. I would also want to try this one. A Heart balloon or something for this coming season of hearts. The idea is great.
Farrell recently posted..Solid Foundations for Better Vision
Hi Randy
Well done on the Sunshine Award, totally deserved, your style is very helpful and friendly. Your link cloaker sounds interesting, the ability to send your list a link to a monthly list roundup of recommended products has a lot of potential, look forward to it coming out and Happy New Year.
Beth@Get Him Back recently posted..How to Get Him Back After Pushing Him Away
Good luck for 2012. This is going to be a very big year for all.
“He is able who thinks he is able.” – Buddha
Craig recently posted..PLR product creation
Happy New Year! I’m wishing you all the best this 2012. Looking forward for more shares from you Randolf.
Hello Randy..
Congratulation for getting Sunshine Award….it is my first visit to your post …really your posts are amazing …i enjoyed reading ….keep rocking….:)
blue -red – black / no.8 / facebook / and roses / tiger .. guess i have a similar taste with you there..
may be i need an award or may be some years after.
Congratulations for having that Sunshine award. The year 2012 is a good year for you and hopefully you’ll get another one again in the next event. This would be my first post and hope it won’t be the last as I’ll read more of your article in the next minutes. Thank you.
First of all Congratz on sunshine award. Your post is superb and helpful for visitors. I read your other articles too. So , I just bookmarked your website and add it to my favorites.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
Regards,
Amelie Wakelin
Step by Step recently posted..Step By Step Template of Student Leave Letter
congrats for those who were awarded, you so much deserve it………. more good work to make for you guys……..
Jer Marie recently posted..treatment for skin
You guys are awesome.. you truly deserve it! congrats for those who awarded.. keep up the good work…
Rudz recently posted..vegetarian weight loss plans
Good job guys, congrats both of you..Thanks Randy, i enjoyed reading this article…
Cynel V. recently posted..acne scars treatment