I'm disappearing for a month to finish writing my book

I spilled coffee on my MacBook today when I lost my balance and fell into my chair at my desk, so it is drying out while I use my old iMac to stay connected to the Internet. I fell last Friday too. Right in front of the supermarket. Tripped on the curb. Fell hard on my right knee and heels of both palms. Rolled onto my back and couldn't get up. Some nice younger man held out his hand and pulled me up. I was dazed for a few hours, but my recovery was nearly miraculous. A lot of swelling but no fractures, no scraped skin, and almost no bruising. For hitting the pavement so hard there should have been more damage and pain. Maybe it was endorphins.

My own fault... I saw the safety paint, but just didn't pick up my feet. Nothing wrong with me... I'm just stressed and not paying attention. I'm too distracted by everybody else's needs and need some time to manage my own needs.

There is a list of my own projects on the bottom of my home page. You can see what I have completed so far by the checkmarks. This next week I'll finish updating the important pages on AndreaReynolds.com so I can generate more book sales.

The rest of October will be devoted to researching and writing my book. That $152,000 I needed to raise to be able to give away my condo is now $170,000. Putting aside my own projects is costing me money and stress.

I ask you to be on "my Dream Team" by buying my book. Membership in Commission Free Speakers comes with purchase. Getting out so I can be on my way depends on my selling 2,000 copies of Your Wisdom is Worth a Million. I must write it quickly but I can't focus if I'm distracted by other assignments. I can afford to take only one more month to do it. I had planned to be out of here September 1st and now I worry I'll be stuck here for the winter. So I'm asking everyone's indulgence until Hallowe'en while I put all my energy and attention into this one urgent project.

Feel free to send me notes of encouragement and support over the month of October. Edible treats are always welcome and good for the soul (just not for the waistline.)

And don't forget to enter my condo giveaway contest.

PS I think the MacBook is going to be OK. But the LCD screen will have some water marks on one side. I'll have to live with it... the cost to replace is about 1/2 the cost of the laptop.

Accepting invitations to Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner

October 8 is Canadian Thanksgiving, and it looks like I will be alone. I have no family in Canada, all my friends have families they will be with, and in the past I have opened my home to "orphans" like me, but nobody showed up. What! Nobody wants a free meal? So, I am happy to accept an invitation and will even bring a dish. Remember, I'm a good cook, have won recipe contests and even hosted a radio show on food and cooking.

So invite me. I have good manners and good conversation skills. And you don't have to pair me up with anyone.... just don't seat me at the kid's table or I'll give them tips on how to be cantankerous and rebellious.

And thanks!

Andrea

CommissionFreeSpeakers.com is live

My new online directory of international speakers is now live. (You can click on the heading above to get to it.) I even had it moved to a newer server so I could get feedback/contact forms to work. So now you can send me an email or use the message box. And I'm getting some thoughtful responses to my Rant on why I dislike unsolicited phone inquiries from speakers. There will be more rants and more speaker profiles as speakers send me the info to post.

The site isn't loaded with graphics and images - this is basic software that doesn't lend it self to easy customizing. But it's clean looking and in the future perhaps I can add a column and more elaborate formatting. But this is OK for now.

Next web site project is to finish www.AndreaReynolds.com which will have to be done and uploaded a section at a time as I work on finishing the book, Your Wisdom is Worth a Million. This week I'm working on the condo giveaway essay contest info; next week it will be all the page for my books., so I can sell more of them. All the old pages are still up so you can still navigate the site, but you'll see a real disparity in appearance between the new and old pages. (New pages are blue; old pages have green background.)

I hope you'll have a look. Feel free to refer any speakers who may want assistance with their career.... or even better book me to speak at your next conference or convention.

Speaker directory is up... well, almost

You can now see the whole web site, but it's sitting on my primary domain, www.AndreaReynolds.com. Commission Free Speakers is not yet standing alone in its own domain, www.CommissionFreeSpeakers.com. If you click on the heading above you will get there. It has replaced the old pages, but I will be happier when it's where it should be. Still I'm content that the new site is viewable.

I spent about 9 days working on the site... that's about 10 pages per day. The only unfinished pages are speaker pages because I haven't collected all the speaker data that can be posted. But now that I have the hang of editing and publishing the pages work should go quite quickly now.

I'd love to have your comments and suggestions for improvement. And if you find any misspellings or errors please bring them to my attention. I'm especially anxious to know if everything works. My biggest concern is the PayPal buttons. For some reason the software I use creates a very big gap between the text and the PayPal button. So I have placed all the PayPal payment buttons at the bottom of each page, which requires visitors to scroll down to the bottom. But the buttons seem to work, if a bit slowly. Feel free to buy something - even a $2 tip sheet - if you want to test the system. ;-) By the way, all revenues from CommissionFreeSpeakers will be counted toward the $152,000 I'm raising so I can give away the condo free and clear and be on my way across North America.

Do have a look.

CommissionFreeSpeakers.com - is due to launch Fri/Sat.

I have 14 pages completed and 48 more are half-written. The annual membership fee which includes a private marketing forum for speakers will be $89.00 a year until Dec. 31. If you want to save $40, you can join by Friday Sept. 14 by making payment on the prototype sub-domain by PayPal or by debit card with logo (and credit card). Just click on the heading above to get to the payment page. You can then complete the application at any time.... but ideally within one week. This offer expires in 2 days.

I'll upload the completed pages on Friday or Saturday which means the prototype site with the lower fee will disappear at the same time. So if you have any thoughts of gaining visibility and income as a speaker do consider the benefits of joining Commission-Free Speakers. This $89 service is an affordable alternative to my far more expensive promotional campaigns; the differences being the price and also that you will be promoted as a group, rather than individually.

Remember that $152,000 I'm raising so I can give away my condo? CommissionFreeSpeakers.com will not be a huge money maker for me, but the proceeds (about $85 net after transaction fees are subtracted) will all be counted in the $152,000. So if 200 new speakers join at $89, that will raise $17,000 over a year. Not a lot, but it's a start. And reports, manual, tip sheets and booklets sold will also count.

You can also purchase gift certificates for speakers you know who cannot afford the membership fee. What a great way to help someone with speaking skills and knowledge to share start to earn a good income.

Andrea

Finally updating my web sites; click this to see sample

Since my iMac crashed, I've been finding it difficult to update web pages which were originally done with Adobe Pagemill 3.0. My new-ish MacBook has an OS that won't open Pagemill pages. I have an older G3 that will open Pagemill pages but isn't connected to the Internet. Having to keep transfering floppies on my one floppy drive to upload pages is a pain, and the files open on a huge screen that is just too big to deal with. I'm now used to working with tighter pages.... working with older double size pages is so awkward. I've been so frustrated by the whole mess that I had to find a solution.

Well, then I downloaded the demo for Dreamweaver which does open Pagemill pages but the updated pages have too much blank space on the page and they look so messy. The 30 day demo was nearing an end and I couldn't see paying US $400 for a program that was daunting and probably meant for programmers. So I did some scouting and found RapidWeaver for the Mac, made in Great Britain. I tried 3 pages and bought the program for $49. There are theme templates and you just drag and drop the text and images into the page. I like it and have chosen 4 themes for my 4 web sites. Very plain and simple, but I'm happy with the look. I just copy and paste text from the browser and then reformat, adding the links. I still want to figure out how to add PayPal payment buttons so I can generate income again, but I'm feeling victorious about my accomplishment.

AndreaReynolds.com (blue) has 4 pages up now, with a few hundred to go, and I hope to have it completed by October 15. I've been working on CommissionFreeSpeakers (red) and hope to have the whole site uploaded and launched by Sept. 15. HandyAnde.com will be orange and completed maybe October 30. CrisisBrainstorm.com will be completed, I hope, by November 1. Don't you think AndreaReynolds.com is starting to look better?

3 photos of living room

Slowly I'm getting new photos posted as I paint and clear rooms.


This is a loveseat I received through Freecycle.org. The coffee table is from Ikea.


The "library" is on the other side of the exterior hall. The books are tools of my trade so they will go into storage but the shelves will stay. There are 8 of these book shelves throughout the condo.


The camera was pointed at the window so the light makes it difficult to see the sheers over the large window. I'll take one at night too.

More will follow over the next two weeks. Keep those contest entries coming... and don't forget to include your contact info.

Andrea