Greetings Affiliate Stuff readers!  How are you all?  Are you well?  As you’ll note I’m now back from holiday where I was unfortunate enough to contract a lovely dose of the flu from my Father in Law.  This has left me moderately grumpy and sleep deprived so I thought I’d treat you all to a wee moan-ette / cautionary tale about merchants who don’t respond to their mail!

Setting The Scene

OK, so before I headed off on my jollies it sort of occurred to me that I don’t often Take My Own Advice and ask merchants for an enhanced commission structure.  It further occurred to me that considering the amount of work I’ve been putting in recently that this was extremely stupid of me.

With that in mind I duly wrote to two merchants I think I can do much better for on one of my sites and asked for their thoughts.  Now, in the above linked treatise I said the worst you could get was “a polite no”.  Oh how foolish and naive I was – it is now clearly apparent that the worst that can happen is that you get no response at all.

What’s happened in this case is that one merchant whom I’ve only recently started working with has opened a dialogue with me and the other, whom I’ve been working with for almost a year, has chosen not to respond.

But Isn’t It Obvious What Will Happen?

Merchants be warned.  For should an affiliate of yours mail you with a query you may well think “No chance.  We’re not doing that, away with them!  I shan’t even dignify that with a response!!”

But what if one of your competitors with very similar nay almost identical product lines DID respond?  Furthermore, what if they said “Sure.  We’ll look into this.  We’d love to work with you more.  What can we do for ya?”

Merchants who don’t communicate or respond to their affiliates risk losing their loyalty.

Me personally, I am a very loyal affiliate.  I value a decent relationship above all else and I will frequently opt to send traffic to merchants whom I’ll make a lesser return from in terms of EPC but will ultimately profit more with in the long term from the benefits of a close working relationship.

If You Run a UK Based Affiliate Programme And…

There’s a hole in your stats where £5,000 of monthly sales I was sending to you used to be in the next few weeks then you can reasonably assume that this article was about you

Yep, its that time again.  We don’t seem to be able to let more than 10 weeks or so go by without hopping on a plane somewhere!  We’re leaving tomorrow morning to spend 10 days in New Zealand.  It’s mainly going to be a family visit and we will be travelling North to spread Duncans Grandmothers ashes on Monday.

Before anyone gets at all jealous, I should really let you know that it’s winter in NZ and we’re likely to be faced with beautiful weather conditions such as these: -

We’re not doing any serious touristing and will be spending time with family, celebrating Duncan’s Birthday on the 8th, and generally relaxing. I will try to post on here whilst we’re away but much will depend on whether or not I end up too cold to think, LOL.

Needless to say my case is filled to bursting with all the winter woolies I could gather (and 3 pairs of flanelette jim jams) and I have already double checked with my Mother in Law that a hot water bottle will be available for my use 24 / 7.

Isn’t it amazing how quickly you get soft about cold weather? You can see the Auckland weather forecast here!

11 degrees? I’ll freeze!  I’m off to look out my hip flask

See y’all on the 15th of July if I don’t manage to post before then.

Well actually, we’re more than half way through 2009 but I didn’t start work properly until almost the end of January because I was in NZ so it’s only now I’ve really done 6 months hard work!  The year so far has been tough to say the least.  I’ve put in shedloads of work and I’m still not any further forward than I was this time last year so I’m feeling a bit demotivated.

Of course, what I forget is that this time last year the recession wasn’t biting and I was selling circa £45k per month of stock for a large merchant of mine, Figleaves.  Which err… I’m definately not any more!  It’s part of my personality to be a bit too demanding of myself meaning that instead of celebrating the fact I was able to replace that income, I’m punishing myself for not doing better (and you all wonder why I like a glass or ten of vino!!).

So In An Attempt To Get My Head Straight…

I’ve decided to check out my progress with the affiliate new years resolutions I made in early January.  Lets hope this exercise doesn’t backfire cos I didn’t read them before I started this post!

• I will focus my marketing activities with networks who have taken the time to know who I am. Yep, I have done this and continue to do so.  In fact, all of my new revenue streams in 2009 have been with “friendly networks”.
• I will use my time more effectively- I’ve definately achieved this.  My new working system means procrastination has not been a big feature in my working day this year.  It’s still going strong and has meant a LOT of progress in my organic traffic endeavours.
• I will get better at not working on my days off. I have also done this, still not perfect but lots of progress.
• I will focus my activities in areas I know I can make money. Check.  It’s been going really well too, particularly my mens underwear offering which has turned into a nice earner with plenty of scope for improvement!
• I will get better at asking for enhanced commission rates. Yep, I’ve done this a couple of times with good results… but should still bear it in mind a bit more!
• I will outsource some activities rather than trying to do everything myself. Yes, although to my shame the link building activity I mentioned previously is only just getting started!  I have also taken someone on to do a bit of content here and there for me.  This has been particularly good recently when I’ve not been too well, takes pressure off.
• I will take my own advice and start some mini sites about new areas that interest me.
  Only one…. and solar panels site didn’t get far. It gets good traffic but not many conversions.  Conclusion: interest is all very good but profit is also interesting!!
• I will venture into new countries to make me less vunerable to changes in the exchange rate. Fail.  Still not done anything more on this beyond fiddling with an existing Aussie site.  I bought MaleFashion.com.au recently so will be doing something with that. Eventually!
• I’ll try and encourage Duncan to feel the same passion I do for affiliate marketing I’m trying, but alas my dear hubby just isn’t quite there yet He is keen to try to get more involved in the business though, so we will try a new angle just as soon as I’ve worked out what it is.

Personal Resolutions

• Finally learn to cook something beyond my one-pot specials from my student days. To My Surprise – success!!  Cakes and ummm… things in one pot.  But they’re new and more complicated things!
• Introduce myself to all of my new neighbours.  Then invite them over for a drink! Fail.  I eventually resorted to leaping out on one of my neighbours after I detected him doing maintenance to the boundaries between our properties a few days ago and then making him think HE had to invite ME for a drink.  hah!!
• Employ a gardener so Duncan doesn’t spend every weekend mowing and weeding. Much to my own (and my mum’s) surprise the new gardener is… me!
• Get better at sending birthday cards to my friends children. Check.
• Offset the carbon from all the flying I do. Hmmm…. well I got a compost bin?
• Compost things rather than sending them to the landfill. See above!
• Plant a vegetable garden. It died
• Not shoot the local Bush Turkeys when they dig the above up. It died because they dug it up
• Be less afraid of spiders. Success!  Aversion therapy is the key I now realise. Not difficult in these parts.
• Get better at saying “NO” to people.  Even if it upsets them a bit. (If you see me in 2009 and you think I’m smiling too much, ask me the reason for this one. I can guarantee you’ll soon be telling me to “turn that frown upside down” or, in extreme cases, passing me a box of tissues.) Progress, but I’m still too nice.
• Buy myself a new car.  It won’t be a BMW or a Porsche so don’t expect a “look at my new bling” post.  I don’t drive enough to justify a “super affiliate car”! Yes, it’s white, its big, and its a V6 (thanks to fellow affiliates Rich & Sue for selling me their beloved Pathfinder!)
• Take some time out every week to do a bit of art and craft. Fail.  I garden lots though and am making a new fern and succulents garden outside the office window.
• Count to ten more often To Duncan’s relief, success!
• Eventually get around to changing my name to “Mrs McKenzie” on bank accounts and similar. Partial success, because Duncan marched me round to the bank with marriage certificate, lol.
• Pay off 20% of my mortgage. Pfft!  Once the pound rebounds I’ll give that one a shot.

Anyone else make resolutions?  How are they going?  I’m actually quite pleased with my progress.  I’m not perfect but my strike rate is pleasingly low and this post has put my aims back into my mind again.

Onwards and upwards (but I’m still annoyed I’ve not improved on last years profit!).

I know you all must be sick and tired of me going on about how important it is to not only work hard but work smart. I also know I’ve been moaning terribly about all the new methods I’ve been working on recently so thought it was high time I actually shared one of them with you.

Working Smarter & Taking My Blogging To New Levels!

I’ve been deeply concerned recently about making more of the time I spend working.  One thing that has really been frustrating me is seeing all these clever guys such as Compare Store Prices ranking for many of my target terms with their sites.  Whilst I’m writing content for each and every brand I target plus oodles of accompanying articles, sites like these are cleverly manipulating feeds, melding it with some unique content, and adding value with a good resource which is created en masse with their clever feed wizardry.

The result is they rank well for a huge range of search terms and enjoy a beautiful economy of scale within their business.  Just look at Compare Store Price’s Alexa ranking – isn’t that a fabulous thing to behold on an affiliate owned site?

Clearly I Lack The Ability To Do All That…

But I did wonder if I might be able to fuse my own content with feed content on a much smaller scale, and create a quicker and more efficient to generate some useful content of my own.

So without further ado here’s what I came up with…

*Click the image to see the page on my mens undies site (opens in new window)

What I’ve done is used the merchant’s feed and one of their short descriptions for each product and then created a second longer description of my own in another field, combined it with their image and price data, and output it into an HTML template I designed.  I used a bulk posting script a kind reader roughed out for me to get my content into a WordPress post in this structure.

This Improves My Efficiency Thusly….

Instead of being able to write up and post 4 reasonably sized product articles in an hour, I can now do the necessary to come up with 10 of these (still perfecting the methodology so may be able to improve upon that a little).

For those of you who like more numbers (as I do) this means that in one hour per day I can create 170 rather spiffing looking blog articles per month.  I’m also pleased to announce that because it’s a “different way” of writing I can still do another couple of hours writing my “normal” articles without getting bored.

I’m Still Not Sure How It’ll Work…

It could be that this is not enough for the search engines to consider it unique and useful content, but I think I’ve re-worked the merchant’s products from the feed, added a good whack of unique text, and created a useful resource.

I’ll be very careful to keep a reasonable balance of this type of content with stuff that is more “traditionally” written, and won’t be posting huge swathes of this stuff all at once – but I’m certainly very pleased with the initial small test I’ve done.  Of course, like anyone who starts to use merchant feeds to help generate content I’ll no doubt find that many merchant’s feeds just aren’t much cop and I can’t work with them terribly easily.

Anyhoo… this is the product of quite a bit of thinking for a good few weeks, so I’ll be interested to hear what y’all think about it.  If nothing else, I think I’d be able to use this method to write content more quickly by simply completely removing the merchant description and using a longer one of my own.

The Next Step…

Is to think up a way to use my current sites and their content successfully in combination with lots of different merchant feeds, creating even more efficiencies of time (Reckon it’ll take me more than a few weeks to work out mind you – few years perhaps?).

P.S. My sincere and abject apologies once again to John Lamerton for yet another mens underwear related example which will no doubt put him off his lunch (sorry John!!)

I’ve been thinking today about the critical ingredients for affiliate success. Why?  Because I’m feeling a bit frustrated and negative right now and considering how hard work and the desire to succeed are simply not enough to really start bringing in the big bucks as an affiliate.

I’m sure all seasoned affiliates will know what I’m talking about when I say that there is most definately an affiliate “X Factor” (My thanks to Martin Warn for that phrase via MSN recently).  There are just some people you meet in this industry and you immediately think “Oh yeah baby! You are definately a rising star in the making.”

So What Is That X Factor?

Well, I reckon if I knew for sure I’d be raking it in because I’d have been able to analyse it all and would be selling millions of “How to Be a Good Affiliate” e-books.

When you meet an affiliate who makes a full time living, they are always an intensely interesting, motivated person to be around.  They have a creative presence that is almost magnetic.

But This Isn’t A Post About Affiliate Star Spotting

Many would be affiliates desire the flexible lifestyle, the money and everything else.  But who doesn’t?  Lots of people want it and then simply can’t be assed to do anything about it or want it handed to them on a plate.  A handful of people are incredibly motivated and will do just about anything to succeed.  OK, that’s 80% of the battle but I’ve met plenty of people with 50 content rich websites who were making a pittance in comparison to the work they’d been putting in. Why?  Well, its usually because they’re simply following a mindless formula and churning out a lot of stuff that may never work for them on the grand scale they have in mind.

People Who Succeed Have Something In Common…

The Affiliate “X Factor” is what lets you find that niche that will actually work.  I believe that involves a huge amount of creative and lateral thinking, as well as the ability to empathise strongly with the mindset of the online consumer, and predict upcoming buying trends.

Ideas?  Ideas?  If you have too many of them and have to keep a notepad beside your bed and have recently had to invest in a waterproof one for when you’re in the bath, then you might just have that X Factor.

BUT

I’ve also met a lot of people with the affiliate mojo who didn’t have the ability to do the hard graft to bring all their wild and wonderful ideas to fruition.

So If You Wonder Why The Market Isn’t Being Flooded With New Affiliates….

Not only do you need to be one of the lucky few have that fabulous ability for hugely creative entrepreneurial thinking and be able to see that highly lucrative niche from a mile off – you also need to be one of the handful the inclination to do all the hard graft to make them work.

Do YOU have the affiliate X Factor? Do you have what it takes to make it work?  Think about it.

Ahhh… so its the end of my working week and I’m just back in from doing the gardening (relatively incident free 1 x mozzie bite on the ear and one spider plus web in the face).  I always like to round the day off by immersing myself in my Google Analytics account and trying to learn something about the way people are searching to come to my sites.

Today, I decided to find out what the hell everyone who came here actually wanted when they arrived.  Very interesting stuff.  Here’s a few choice picks that interested me….

• 58 People have arrived after searching for Kirsty McCubbin *shudder* I hope that was all my nice friendly blog readers and not any half crazed axe murderers / ex boyfriends I’ve inadvertently offended in the past.

• 44 People were looking for Big Scary Spiders – Clearly I am an SEO genius as I’ve somehow managed to rank first in Google for that one.  I do wonder why?
  Also many other spider related referrals including Australian spiders, scariest spider in the world, big spider, etc etc etc.
• 30 people were desperately trying to understand Tradedoublers 90th epc – and no bloody wonder in my humble opinion.  I only wrote that article to try and work it out myself.  I still don’t have any clue whatsoever.
• 50 People wanted to know what the average affiliate earnings were.  Let me take this opportunity to clear that up for you all right now.  It’s £3,000,000 per second.  Happy?  Are you going to earn that now?  No you’re not, because you still don’t know how to earn it!
• 57 People were looking for help on finding affiliate niches.  Hurahh and congratulations!! You came to exactly the right place – more niche info right here.
• 5 People were searching for fanny magnets - This is my favourite number one Google ranking ever.  Who on earth goes looking for them?  What do they think they’re gonna buy?  An actual device to attract them in?  *could be a hot niche tip there*
• 2 people were clearly hacked off, they searched for “Affiliate Window Sucks“. You won’t find that particular moan on here though, cos I quite like them!
• 2 people were looking for “Kirsty’s Undies“ and 2 more “Kirstys boobs“ – ewww behave, I’m not that sort of affiliate!!

All in all, it was an interesting way to spend a half hour.  Other than those ones I discovered lots of people find my ramblings about niches, wordpress, and google penalties particularly helpful so that’s good to know.  Lots of people are searching for my name too, so now I’ve gone and got a big head and think I’m an internet celebrity

It does strike me it’d be good to find some new areas to harp on about, but as this is a “stream of consciousness” type affiliate blog (posh way of saying I’ll write what I damned well please) I shall have to wait for inspiration to turn up in its own good time!

Just a short post from me to say thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to nominate me once again for this years A4U Awards.

As you all will be totally fed up with me saying, I love the world of affiliate marketing and sharing my thoughts with you about it on here.  It’s really just the icing on the cake that other people find my internet meanderings enjoyable enough to give me the nod in the form of a nomination. It really does mean a lot.

As always, big up kudos must go to the other nominees.  These chaps all have excellent blogs that should be in the RSS of everyone in the industry: -

Jason – Onelittleduck.co.uk

John – Lammo.net (at last John!!!)

Kieron – Here.org.uk

Lee – Leemccoy.co.uk

If you’d like to vote in this year’s awards for the blogging hopefuls or any of the other categories You Can Do So Right Here.

(NB – Vote Hannah Swift For Publishers Choice Account Manager!!!!!)

Finally

To all of you who have let me know you enjoy this blog, or that its helped you in some small way, from the bottom of my heart – thank you. Every time I hear that I feel like I’ve just won something.  It’s your enjoyment of this blog that really keeps me enthusiastic about writing it!

Good luck to everyone nominated and I hope all those attending the awards have a great time.  I deeply regret I won’t be able to attend and enjoy the shindig of the year

It’s been a funny old week you know.  I don’t think I’ve ever suffered with jetlag quite so badly.  Perhaps it’s a sign from the great affiliate gods that I need to calm down my travelling ways and stay put for a wee while!   I’ve languished the week away in my jim jams, sat like a poor wee waif hunched over my keyboard in the hope that some kind of notion to work would strike.

It’s hard to get back to reality and work after such an awesome trip.  Once more I find myself in the difficult position of trying to get my affiliate groove back on after a hiatus.  I’ve written about this quite a few times, and I still think it’s the most difficult part of our job.  After all, the vast majority of us have nobody expecting us to do very much – and so at certain times that’s what happens… NOTHING!!

Onwards & Upwards Rodney…

So this time my “getting back into it” checklist is as follows: -

• Tidy house to within an inch of its life and make sure everything is where it should be once more. Although this actually sounds like an avoidance strategy, it’s very important to me that my house and surroundings are perfect before I can work.  Mess stresses this affiliate lassie out big time.
• What on earth was I doing before I left? Yep, first thing I need to do now that I’m actually able to do more than sit and look at my stats is to try and work out where I’d gotten up to with my projects at the point I left for the UK.  I hope you’re not looking to an answer to that one… I tend to just sit and scroll through my sites until unfinished tasks jump out at me and make their way in a notepadward direction!
• Motivate myself to jump back into work on Monday. Errr…. ok, this is where the problems might just start, LOL.  Personally, I’m motivated by the potential for results, so on Sunday evening I’m going to sit down and work out what I’ll achieve when I sit down and do 3 months hard graft.  Hopefully this will get me pumped and mean I start the week running.
• Motivate Duncan to jump back into work on Monday. Answers on a postcard

Was It Worth All This Schedule Havoc?

Oh god yes!  There’s no job like this in the world and who else honestly can just nip off for a month and still earn a full time wage.

Hopefully I’ll get back into the swing of things soon and be blogging away like a mad thing. If anyone has any Ask Kirsty’s to help me get going again, please drop me a line… you’ll be doing this affiliate blogger a big favour.

Finally, We Have A New Team Member To Help Us Out

Meet our newest employee.  For once, he’s not a poisonous spider!

This is Lazlo and his self appointed role here at Affiliate Stuff towers is keeping my lap warm when I’m working, and making sure to savage my fingers whenever any important phone calls that I really need to concentrate for are on the go!

Every affiliate should have one of these important organisational tools, here’s hoping he’s going to help ease me back into work.  He sure does make the office a much more pleasant place to hang out!

Yes guys, its time to think about the future!  This interesting wee question was delivered to me today via Twitter when I commented I’ve had bloggers block whilst trying to work out of my Mum and Dad’s dining room (not easy!!).

The single question that came back really struck a chord as it’s been on my mind quite a lot recently.

I was asked: – “do u expect putting up aff. sites till granny-hood? How do you see the future?”

Not a broad question at all there *ahem*.  I think like most people, when asked to consider the future in a career you’re completely happy with you automatically think “I can see myself doing this job forever.”

A Couple Of Subsequent Thoughts Then Remind Me That’s Unlikely

1. 15 years ago this job didn’t exist.  The affiliate of 5 years ago and 10 years ago operated in dramatically different ways and market conditions.  It therefore follows that by the time I reach retirement age the way the information superhighway works and the purchasing habits of humankind will be beyond all recognition.  Will affiliate marketing even exist in 20 years time?

2.  Looking around, all the smart cookies are putting a few eggs outside the affiliate basket.  This makes me think I should be doing the same.  But what should I do?  Notable people such as the UK’s fave affiliate blogger Kieron Donoghue have started up ventures such as Content Now and are diversifying away from total reliance upon the affiliate stream.

So How Do I See The Future?

Quite alarmingly, I find myself unable to look beyond the end of this year.  I know the world in which I work will change constantly and that I’ll need to keep up with those changes if I want to survive. I’ve complete faith in my ability to do this but in all honestly, I see the future as completely uncertain.  This is both exciting and terrifying. What if I find myself out of a job in 5 years time? Certainly the world in which I work is almost unrecognisable since I started out as an affiliate 5 years ago.

Creating My Own Certainties

This is something I started doing as soon as I went full time.  I’ve always been a bit of a worry wart so rather than spending all my income I have invested a lot into property.  I own 2 houses in the UK which I’ve bought to help provide for me in my later years.

Beyond that, I have a vague desire to invest in some kind of offline business where my online marketing skills might help tap into new markets and generate new customers.  I’ve a further ambition that having my own e-commerce site based upon my knowledge of various niches could be an interesting venture, but it would be one I’d need to embark upon with others who have knowledge of the mechanics of running an online store.

So Where Does Your Future Lie?

What do you all think?  Will you still be working in affiliate marketing when you reach retirement age? (which will be 95 by the time we all finally get to put our feet up!)  Where does the future of affiliate marketing lie?  Will the internet even still be there in 50 years or will the ice caps have melted leaving us all living in a very bad Kevin Costner film without Facebook and Twitter to help us live worthwhile lives?

Greetings blog fans and do excuse the longer than normal pause from my direction.  I decided to go completely offline for an entire week whilst in Austria. This was followed right up with a trip to Ireland during which I also went internet “Cold Turkey”. Very daring I thought!  I have to confess I didn’t think much about work up until I had a very interesting experience at the hands of one of our lovely hosts in Austria.  Keen to ensure we experienced the best the area had to offer they treated us to a wee go on their burgeoning business – a high rope course!  Needless to say I nearly had what we call in Scotland a “hairy canary” when presented with the need to clamber over difficult rope arrangements high up in the tree tops.

As you can tell I survived, but experiencing something that was so far out of my day to day comfort zone did give me a fair amount of food for thought.  You really realise what’s important in life when despite the many safety harnesses they strap you into your treacherous bloody brain convinces you that you’ll die if you make a wrong move!

Now this kind of experience does two things

1. It makes you proud you went so far outside your comfort zone, learned something new, and survived the experience.

2. It highlights that your daily concerns and “what you know is important” is perhaps not as important as you’d previously perceived.  A good dose of perspective is achieved!

How Does This Translate To Affiliate Marketing?

Well guys and gals, I’m not asking you to dangle off a rope high above the forest floor to improve your affiliate performance, but taking a good look at yourself to see if you are stuck in an “affiliate comfort zone” might be a dashed good idea.  I’m not just talking to affiliates here, this applies to anyone involved in the glorious technicolour world that is our beloved industry.

I believe there are a number of areas that many affiliates start to get “over comfortable” with, and I do include a number of my own sins here which I frequently strive to remedy!

• Falling victim to the belief that something which didn’t work for you once ago won’t work ever. You tried it, things didn’t work out, and you’re never going near it again.  Sound familiar?  We’ve all had it at one stage or another.  However, there’s nothing that annoys me more than when I later discover that actually I was just trying with the wrong merchant or at the wrong time and that I’ve been missing out on a juicy revenue stream.  Same can apply with the names reversed for those of you on the other side of the fence!
• The cardinal sin – I Know It All And Nobody Has Anything To Teach Me – This could so easily turn into an undignified rant from me about some of the notions and attitudes of underexperienced network or agency staff who seem to have attended the Reginald Perrin school of customer relations.  However I shall leave that one for another day.  Anyhow, affiliates are the bloody worst at this.  Don’t get me wrong, the strongly held conviction that their own methods are good, effective, and the best is the reason why there are so many damned successful affiliates out there.  But would it really do any harm to consider there might just be some rare soul out there who has something to teach ya?
• The flip side of the above coin – Believing Everything Anyone Ever Writes About SEO And / Or Affiliate Marketing. This is more of an area where beginners can get dragged down.  Approach every bit of information you read with a bit of scepticism.  Treat nothing as gospel until you have thoroughly tested it yourself.  The sad fact is that there’s rarely a “cut and dried” answer to anything very much in our industry.  Google is one prime example of this – never, ever expect consistency from that direction.  They might well have rules, but they don’t enforce them with anything approaching a steady hand.  Lets face it, if they did clever black hat types would exploit it in an instant!
• What I’m Doing Works – I Have Nothing New To Learn – Although you definately shouldn’t muck about too much with tried and tested methods, I believe it’s important to keep up to date with new things and push yourself a little out of your comfort zone to learn about them and test premises you hear about on the grapevine.  Similarly, maybe you could try dipping a toe in the water with a new niche that is strongly related to an area you’re in already.  Sometimes the results can be very surprising, and even if it does turn out to be a load of old crap – you always learn something!

Whatever your affiliate comfort zone is, step outside it a little bit today.  It doesn’t have to be a massive change of direction (in fact I strongly advise against that sort of carry on!).  However, take a wee step into the unknown, feel the fear, and reap the benefits!