This site is about people, just ordinary ones like you and I, who do extraordinary things. Some start businesses, some start a charity, some just help people but one of the best examples is a lady called Erin Gruwell. Ten years ago (roughly) she was appointed as a new teacher with a class of what appeared to be hopeless write-offs in the Longbeach area of California. Her passion for teaching and getting the best out of this class became a story that has been published in books, made into a film and is now a growing world-wide movement. It is called the Freedom Writers Foundation and is just about the perfect example of someone doing what this site is all about – Start Something Today. She did and many children and youngsters have been the major beneficiaries. I applaud her and support her work – go and take a look too. Buy the film – if you aren’t touched at a very deep level I’d be astonished. If you fancy it you can make a small donation to the Freedom Writers Foundation – it would help many people.
Whilst on holiday – a rare fine day in a wet summer – I came across something that I’ve know for years but had forgotten. How nice it is to receive a handwritten letter or postcard? When was the last time you made the effort to hand-write a letter? I used to write almost every day to my wife and children and some years I was away for 200 + days/year. Those letters are treasured and often re read and often bring about a smile or tears but the still produce a response.
Text messages and e mails and twitter don’t have the same effect. E mails bring me to tears sadly but all for the wrong reasons.
One company leading the swing back to letter writing is Papernation and the blog that goes with the site is always worth a peek.
As always these posts come with a challenge – who are we going to write to today or this week? Tell us what happened as a result. Go on encourage someone today!
You may have created the best website in the world and have the product everyone wants or needs but unless you get found by the search engines then it will take months if not years to build the traffic to your site. We talked in the past about Squidoo (if you are not yet registered click the preceding link) , Gumtree, US Free Ads, backlinks, signatures, business cards but just this last weekend I came across a post on a website that I follow that was very interesting and can be massively helpful in generating traffic.
Before I share with you the site I just want you to think about something really important. If you come across something really good you have 3 options 1. keep it to yourself , 2. share it with others close to you or option 3. copy it and pretend you are the author.
Options 1. is plain selfish and can’t be justified. Option 2 is OK but you don’t really get the best return and option 3 – well it is not the right thing to do.
The post I found this weekend is on a site called Maxblogpress.com and has been a site that I’ve watched and used for several years. It is foccsed on wordpress blogs and has produced some great little ideas but the article today is all about being found by the search engines and is so topical today that I can’t tell you how excited i am about it all. It shows you how to get several key websites to list your sites and thatway get more traffic and more potential sales. The post to go and have a look at is called how to be listed by killer startups.
makes very interesting reading and is well worth the time to explore. Please also sign up for the Maxblogpress.com newsletter which has been of consistently high quality.
I use twitter to follow many people and today I was checking a couple of tweets and saw one that made me want to look further. The site is all about people’s experiences of getting laid off or made redundant and is well worth a look. It recently was featured in the Wall Street Journal and I sadly note that in many states in the USA unemployment is running at 10% or more and that’s only the beginning in my opinion.
We have to become more supportive of the people we know who have or are struggling with being laid off and offer them hope. That’s what this site and the community behind it are all about – offering hope, support and the belief that there is a better way.
Don’t forget you can always contribute and join the community and in doing so we may well be able to offer to give you or people you know the lift up in life they need to get back on their feet – Don’t forget our Free Web Hosting offer for those who deserve it.
Ok – its been a long time coming but what started out as a simple monday morning call with some freinds who shared a common goal (health in this case) has become something much more. Start Something Today is a beginning that might just lead anywhere – It depends on what we want to do and what we want to start – hence the name.
In todays economic climate we have recognised that we need to be proactive and actively create what matters to us. If we don’t do that we run the risk of getting stuck in a passive state where we watch the hurting world pass by and do nothing about it.
The key categories we have put in place ( we can add more later on) are the things we talk about most often. So here we are at the beginning of what I hope and Trust will be a wild ride where a few people get together to make a real difference and have a lot of fun in the process.
We will have some editorial guidelines to put in place but we have to start some where.
Paul Barton – excitedly
WE have today lived up to the title of the site START SOMETHING TODAY
This site is about people, just ordinary ones like you and I, who do extraordinary things. Some start businesses, some start a charity, some just help people but one of the best examples is a lady called Erin Gruwell. Ten years ago (roughly) she was appointed as a new teacher with a class of what appeared to be hopeless write-offs in the Longbeach area of California. Her passion for teaching and getting the best out of this class became a story that has been published in books, made into a film and is now a growing world-wide movement. It is called the Freedom Writers Foundation and is just about the perfect example of someone doing what this site is all about – Start Something Today. She did and many children and youngsters have been the major beneficiaries. I applaud her and support her work – go and take a look too. Buy the film – if you aren’t touched at a very deep level I’d be astonished. If you fancy it you can make a small donation to the Freedom Writers Foundation – it would help many people.
Whilst on holiday – a rare fine day in a wet summer – I came across something that I’ve know for years but had forgotten. How nice it is to receive a handwritten letter or postcard? When was the last time you made the effort to hand-write a letter? I used to write almost every day to my wife and children and some years I was away for 200 + days/year. Those letters are treasured and often re read and often bring about a smile or tears but the still produce a response.
