About

Martin Malden

Firstly - thanks for visiting!

Disclosure for the FTC:

The FTC in the US recently announced that it is going to be applying the same standards to on-line advertising and marketing as it does to the off-line world.

I am delighted with this, given that I've always been against the over hyped claims made by many who are marketing tools, products or services to people working on-line.

One of the FTC requirements is that where writers are reviewing a product or service, and stand to benefit if someone buys it as a result, their interest should be made clear up front.

I have always disclosed my affiliate relationship at the beginning of any article reviewing a product or service for which I'm an affiliate but, for the sake of clarity, and to make sure I'm in compliance with the FTC's requirements, let me make it clear:

I am an affiliate for the products that are advertised on this site and for most of the products I review.

That means I get a commission from the product owner if you buy them by clicking the links on this site.

Just like a sales person in the 'real' world gets commission for selling whatever products his employer markets.

OK - on with the interesting stuff!

This page is split into two parts:

How to get the best from this blog
About me

How to get the best from this blog

There’s a lot of information on this blog for people who have an Internet Marketing business, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been doing it for a while.

So here’s a quick ‘how to’ on finding everything:

I categorise every article I write, keeping all articles on the same subject together.

On the right, under the heading ‘See Articles On:’, is a listing of all the categories on which I’ve written articles, with a count of the number in each category. Every article on this blog is within one of the categories listed, so please explore to your heart’s content.

Every article is tagged as well. This will enable you to find articles more tightly focused on a specific subject within a general category.

For example, within the Internet Marketing category I’ve written several articles on social network marketing. If you want to see other social network marketing articles simply click the relevant tag that will be listed at the bottom of the article.

Under the listing of categories is a listing of the articles that have had the most readers over the past 2 weeks – articles which are currently hot.

At the top of the page, in the menu, is a menu item linking to the top articles on the blog – the best of the best, some of which go back more than a year.

And, finally, the 5 most recent articles I’ve written are on the Home page.

The search functions on this blog work in the same way as they do on normal search engines. So you can use wildcard searches (add an * after your search phrase) or enclose searches in quotes (”) in order to narrow down your search results.

The ‘Tools & Resources‘ page introduces some of the products and services I use in my Internet Marketing work. I’ve used all of these for some time and I have no hesitation in recommending them to you!

Finally I publish 2 or 3 new articles a week – so please don’t expect a dozen new articles a day as I much prefer quality over quantity .

You’re quite safe, therefore, subscribing to my new articles – your inbox will not be flooded out! Alternatively you can get updates by email – just enter your email address in the box in the ‘Keep Up To Date’ section, top of the far right sidebar.

So please explore – and I hope you’re able to find something of value here!

About Me:

I grew up on a farm in what is now Zimbabwe.

My parents moved to what was then the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland from England in around 1950.

The British Government paid their fare out there (they were encouraging people to move to different parts of the Empire back then).

My parents bought 1,000 acres of virgin African bush. They literally had to move the game (wild animals) off, clear the land and start working it.

They made their own bricks and they built their own house and barns – click the image on the left for a bigger version of the brick-making pit.

If you ever saw the TV program ‘The Flame Trees of Thika’, that was an identical story to my parents’ story. The male lead in that series even looked like my Dad.

At the age of 7, I went away to Boarding School – about 200 miles away. Having grown to that age in a pretty solitary environment on the farm it was a tough adjustment but, looking back, probably a very necessary one to make.

Living in a boarding school does teach you how to get on with others!

In November 1965 I was on a train going to Salisbury (now Harare) to write an entrance examination to my senior school. It was 11 November, 1965 – the date Ian Smith declared UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) from Britain.

The train came to a stop near a small out-post called Eagle’s Nest, and we sat there for about an hour and a half while the announcement was made.

I had no idea what it was all about but when we eventually arrived at Salisbury station my mother, who had driven into town to pick me up, was all excited about it.

And over the next few days I became aware, by listening to the conversations that my parents had with friends and neighbours, that something of some importance had happened.

But I still didn’t really understand what.

I passed the entrance exam, entered my High School and eventually passed my Matriculation exams and was accepted into Natal University at Durban, South Africa.

This awesome looking building on the left is the hostel in which I lived at my high school – click the image for a bigger version.

Before going to university, though, and at my father’s advice, I did my National Service. In those days it was 9 months in the Rhodesia Regiment – basically an Infantry regiment for the Territorials, as we ‘non-regulars’ were called.

My father’s reasoning was that it would be easier to cope with the discipline imposed by the army if I went there from school – where I had been subject to house and school discipline rules – than if I went there from University, where I’d have got used to the undisciplined life of a student.

He was right.

So I completed my National Service and, the following year, went down to Durban (a 3-day train trip) to start my University career.

I eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Arts at the end of 1975 and returned to Rhodesia.

Part of my University education was paid for by a Rhodesian Government grant and the quid pro quo was that I had to work for the Government for the same number of years that they had paid for my education.

So I started work in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

As a result of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence 10 years before, Rhodesia was now living under compulsory international economic trade sanctions, imposed by the United Nations.

Apart from the terrorist war, which had started in earnest in 1972, the government was also focusing considerable attention on how to beat the sanctions – and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry was at the front line of that effort.

As a student fresh out from University, my first job was to act as secretary to two committees – one that dealt with applications for foreign currency required for industrial projects and the other for commercial projects.

In that position I was able to see a lot about the state of the country’s finances, and I came to the view that Rhodesia wouldn’t be able to sustain the terrorist war for much longer. (Turned out I was right, although it was a tough decision at the time).

So I took the ‘chicken run’ as it was called, by packing my bags and leaving for England.

And from that point on my life became a lot more mundane

I lived and worked in England for 16 years, but never settled. I always felt a little at odds with everything.

In 1994, thoroughly fed up with the nonsense that surrounds company politics, I set up my own consultancy business. Shortly after setting that up, I came to Hong Kong for a 3 month project.

And I’ve been here pretty much ever since. Click the picture on the left for a view of Hong Kong from the Peak. Be patient – the image is over 2 Megs in size and it takes a while to download, but it’s worth the wait.

I’ve been working online for a while now. When I started out I was full of starry-eyed enthusiasm for this new business that was going to make me financially independent.

Like pretty much everyone, I was hit with countless (probably hundreds) of emails, ads and websites, all promising me mega riches tomorrow. They had the secret (so they said) that the ‘gurus’ didn’t want me to know about – the secret to how all those guru’s made their millions.

As long as I applied this system I’d be seeing my bank account ‘bursting’ with all those commission cheques just flooding into it, while I sat on the beach or played golf, or hung out with friends.

Sorry – wrong number!

In early 2007 I joined a business that made the same wildly optimistic claims – and, again, completely failed to deliver. Two months in, and being extremely frustrated and disillusioned, I very nearly walked away from it.

Thankfully I didn’t, because I’ve recovered my investment now, and things are beginning to go my way.

So what have I learned? What’s my ’secret’ system?

Sorry to disappoint you. There’s no secret system. What it takes is that boring old word: WORK.

Setting up a business online is absolutely no different from setting up a ‘traditional’, bricks and mortar business. It requires proper planning, proper funding, perseverance, patience and work.

Most likely it will also require that you learn some new skills.

The purpose of this blog is, therefore, to offer the benefit of my experience in the hope that others who are looking for a way out of the rat race will persevere when things get tough. As they will!

Please feel free to join in the conversation by commenting on posts. Tell us readers about your own experiences – good and bad. Commenting not only benefits other readers it benefits you as well, because it gets back-links to your blog.

I do have a pretty liberal policy with approving comments. But I do lose patience with completely value-free comments that are put there solely for the link. Those comments will not be approved – but most others will be.

Finally, I want to be sure I’m writing stuff here that’s useful to you. So I have a ‘Dear Martin’ page.

On that page please ask any questions you may have that you’d like to know more about – as long as they relate to Internet Marketing or web design.

There’s also a short questionnaire in case you don’t have any specific questions. It’s fine if you don’t, but I’d like to know that I’m writing stuff that’s interesting to you so the questionnaire will point me in the right direction.

So please check out my ‘Dear Martin’ page and let me have your questions! You can find it here.

Again – thanks for stopping by and I wish you all the best for your online endeavours!

BTW – if you’re new to Internet Marketing, or thinking about setting up an online business, why not get hold of my FREE Internet Marketing Course? Check it out here.

And if you feel in need of a break after all that work why not check out some of the tours on my travel site? There’s a special offers page and search boxes for cheap flights, cheap hotels and cheap car rentals. Check it out here.

Sincerely,

MMSignature