A lot of people have been asking how they can create an ebook cover likes the ones below. While you can purchase software to do this, the easiest way is to hire an ebook cover designer – which you can do for under $10!

f you have ever been looking to create your own ebook then you would have also searched for some creative ebook covers which you could use as inspiration for your design – whether you are designing it or getting someone else too.

I have compiled a list of 30 Creative Ebook Covers

read this entry »

Over the last 18 months since I created StandOutBlogger.com, I have met a lot of bloggers and made a lot of friends through this blog, and like to think of my visitors and subscribers as part of the SOB s family (BTW the family is almost 2000 people strong now!!). This is why I wanted to show you a few photos from my wedding (which happened in June, but Fiona and I only recently returned home to Australia from Canada). I hope you enjoy them.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

(sorry about using SmileBox, I find it annoying, but couldn’t find another way to add the photos without making people scroll for ages!) read this entry »

As I am now an engaged man and with my wedding fast approaching I have been spending a lot of time looking at partnerships. How they work, what makes a good one , what makes one last and why being in a partnership is so much better than going it alone.

What I have found is 5 results of a successful partnership and why I’d rather journey with someone than go it alone.

Partners Inspire

When you are working on something alone you only have yourself to please and disaapoint. I don’t know about you, but personal satisfaction only does a small amount to keep me motivated. I am very much an ‘other people focused’ type of person – and my motivation and inspiration comes from wanting to help or please someone else.

As my wedding quickly approaches, I have found my passion and drive to make something of myself online has dramatically increase. You see, now that Fiona and I are in a partnership, my sole focus is to be able to provide for her – yet not in a way that will keep me away from home for long periods of time.

My inspiration to work harder and be more creative with my online businesses, comes from my desire to acheive my best for my partner. If I was still going at this alone I would have no where near the passion that I have now. read this entry »

I will be the first to admit that I have failed on many occassions. Projects that havn’t worked the way I planned. Ideas that turned out to look so much better in my mind than in real life. But it’s not just failure that gets us down, but rejection.

Sometimes well meaning people try to project their personal opinions about us, and while they don’t mean to hurt us -  sometimes it does. Rejection from strangers is easy to handle for most people, but when someone we know and respect tells us that we are a failure, that what we are working on isn’t working, it can really get to us.

So I just wanted to look at 3 really simple things that we can do to turn failure and reject into success. But before I do, check out this video to see a few of the people that failure puts you in the same league as. read this entry »

So many people fail at getting to where they want in life because the do not take ahold of the countless opportunites that come there way – on a regular basis. Everyday we encounter new opportunities and if only we knew how to identify them, we would not only save ourselves a lot of time and effort but we would also start to see our dreams becoming a reality.

So many times we do not recognise all the opportunites that are available to act on. Acting on all opportunites both big and small will help you get to your desired destination quicker.

One thing I noticed is that a lot of people pass up the smaller opportunites because they are looking for that one opportunity that is sure to ‘make it big’, but a lot of times it is the smaller opportunites that provide stepping stones to bigger opportunites.

So here are my 3 Keys to Making Every Opportunity Count

1. Awareness
   How can we expect to be taking ahold of new opportunites everyday if we cannot find them? The first thing that we need to be doing to make every opportunity count is the be aware that opportunites are everywhere! Especially with how busy life always seems to be, we get so caught up in what we are doing that opportunities are walking straight by us - and we don’t even notice.Another reason that we never seem to notice opportunies is because most times they arrive in the way of a problem.Every problem is an opportunity in disguise!Take Benjamin Franklin for example, he had bad eyesight and was tired of changing glasses to view short distance and and long distances. So he created bi-focal lenses.

   So the first thing we need to be doing to make sure we are taking advantage of every opportunity in to realise that opportunities are everywhere and usually they come in the form of a problem.

2. Anticipation
   So now that we know opportunities are everywhere the next step is to anticipate them.The dictionary defines anticipation as:

   To realise beforehand; foretaste or forsee.’

The thing is, that now that we are aware of the countless opportunites available to us, we have to prepare ourselves so that when they come along that we are ready to take ahold of them. This is where your attitude plays a big role.

Even if you have taken the first step and made yourself aware that opportunities are everywhere, if you have a negative attitude you will always make excuses on why everyone else can take ahold of these opportunities and you can’t.

You will make excuses such as:

- I don’t have the money
- The timing isn’t right at the moment
- I could never do that

What you need to realise that the people who take their opportunites and run with it, could easily make the same excuses as you do – they just decide not too. There will always be excuses that you can make as why not to take an opportunity, what you need to do is put those excuses aside and focus on the reasons why you know you should take advantage of it!

3. Action
   I’m sure you were already guessing this would be the final point, but the thing is that a lot of people even when they are aware of opportunities and start to anticipate these opportunites, taking check of their attitude to make sure they are ready – but they never take the action required.The only difference between you and any successful businessman, blogger, internet  marketer or who ever you look up it is the fact that when they were presented with an opportunity they took action!

   If the opportunity requires you to be more qualified – get more qualified. Take the required action to take advantage of the opportunity, but whatever you do, don’t let these actions become excuses that stop you!

I hope these steps will help you to not only find more opportunites but also to take advanage of them and see each opportunity you come in contact with count!