March 24, 24 Hours, 24 Articles, and 1 soon to be struggling with carpal tunnel writer.  It’s beginning to  dawn on me just how extensive this project will be.  I have come up with ideas for some of the posts, and jotted down a few ideas so far.  I want to do the majority of the writing on the 24th.

To many bloggers 24 posts is not a very significant amount for one day.  Then again that is their full time job.  I’m not sure how they don’t get blocked up.  Of course many of them are looking at a newsfeed, commenting on other posts, or bringing up weird stories.  Not that there is anything wrong with this.

My goal is to pack in as much value for you as possible within my 24 posts.  Just 4 days left!

In less than a week, I will be turning 24. Granted this isn’t the most incredible of life’s landmarks, I want to do something different for my golden birthday. With that I am going to do two difficult tasks.

First, I am going to change the look of Aridni. I have had an idea in my head for a new them for a couple of months now. It’s time I finish coding it and get it released. On March 24, Aridni will look quite a bit different. Hopefully it’s for the best.

Secondly, and perhaps quite a bit harder than putting together the theme in one week, I am going to post on the 24th. A LOT. I am going for 24 posts in 24 hours.

To make it fun, I will give away a $24 Amazon gift certificate to a lucky commenter on the this day.

Just in case you haven’t done so already, make sure you are subscribed to the Aridni RSS feed, because you don’t want to miss out on this posting spectacular.

If anybody else wants to join me in the pursuit of a plethora of posts, please let me know and I’ll get a link to your site here.

I need to go stock up on coffee and start stretching my fingers, because the fun is about to begin.

I just wanted to share with you this post from Seth Godin’s blog. The article is basically about the tendency to keep good ideas down in favor of the current status quo. It’s a short little post, but I found it to be motivational.

There’s a myth that all you need to do is outline your vision and prove it’s right—then, quite suddenly, people will line up and support you.

In fact, the opposite is true. Remarkable visions and genuine insight are always met with resistance. And when you start to make progress, your efforts are met with even more resistance. Products, services, career paths… whatever it is, the forces for mediocrity will align to stop you, forgiving no errors and never backing down until it’s over.

The forces of mediocrity

I just saw a commercial for my idea a little while ago. The only problem was that it wasn’t mine. Over a year ago I had a million dollar idea that would take some setup time, and be only a matter of promotion from there.

One of the big issues that I face is that my programming skills in this language aren’t as high as they need to be. I have to reference books to move forward with the project.

An even bigger issue is distraction. I’m kicking myself for not working as hard and long on the project as I certainly needed to be. There is still room for more in this particular area for another player, so hopefully if I can launch within the the next four months I might have a chance.

Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best won’t produce results. Like most things, focusing and doing the work will. I need to get going before I see advertisements from another company now.

I just finished reading this article from Matt Heaton, who is the CEO of Bluehost and Hostmonster. It is called “Win at all Costs!!” It is about the competition of business, particularly the web hosting business. In case you were not aware, the business is incredibly competitive. It is extremely easy to get into the business, all you need is an old computer, an internet connection, and some free software.

Of course something being easy to do, and easy to do well are a completely different thing. If anybody can actually make a good webhosting company, they would find no shortage of customers. It looks like Matt knows a thing or two.

This may seem strange from someone who has written in the past that many of my fiercest competitors are also my friends. We talk often, share ideas, and if they are really struggling with an issue I am glad to help out where I can. I do this because I respect these people in the industry and that respect translates into help and information if they require it.

Having said that, my goal is to take ALL of their customers. They aren’t stupid. They know that is my goal and I have even mentioned it to them on several occasions, and if they were smart they would be plotting to take my customers as well. I can think of several occasions where we have gone above and beyond what any sane company would do to get an affiliate relationship with a large advertiser.

His drive to win gives me confidence in my new webhosting company. Of course only time will tell, but from this article I wouldn’t want to go up against him!

I seem to be much better at picking and buying stocks than I do at selling them. The number one reason for this is because I often forget to sell on the gains. But if I could always call the tops and bottoms of every stock than ranking with investing legends would be a snap.

Where will the market top? Where will it bottom? Buying after a correction or after a company has a rough week is easy. Learning to sell right before one happens is the real trick.

So If I’m not claiming to be a great investor what exactly do I need to be doing to get there? One thing that I need to work on is determining my selling point and timeframe BEFORE I buy the stock.

From there it is a matter of sticking to your guns and selling when you have hit the mark. Of course if significant news come out you will need to re-evaluate where you are going.

If I would have been following my own advice here within the past month I would have been able to sell off one of my stocks at my price, right below the top. Now I have lost much of the gains that could be out growing in another investment.

Well, I have learned quite a bit from this, and hopefully that will make me a better investor in the future. I suppose only time will tell.

What lessons have you learned in bear markets?