Over the past few days I’ve introduced a few new people to the 30 Day Challenge. The problem is, they didn’t get the 2 weeks of pre-season build up that many of us got. Obviously, all the content is still available, but there is quite a lot to get caught up on in a short amount of time. So, for those of you who are feeling overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of information available on ThirtyDayChallenge.com, I’ve put together a quick and dirty list of things to do to get ready for the challenge.

Tools
There are some fantastic tools available to us that are not only very powerful, but best of all, they are free. Some of these tools you may have already heard of, some will be brand new to you. So, to get started, you should download and install the following tools or plug-ins and sign up at the websites that we will be using for the challenge. I’m not going to provide an explanation of why or how each tool is used as that’s going to be covered during the challenge. I’m just going to point you to what you are going to need.

And the tools are:

- Firefox Browser (Download). Many of the tools that you will be using are plug-ins for the Firefox browser.
- SEO for Firefox (Plugin)
- Firebug (Plugin)
- Del.icio.us (Plugin) Requires an account at del.icio.us
- Fleck (Plugin)
- Scribe Fire (Plugin)
- Search Status (Plugin)
- Session Manager (Plugin)
- Stumble Upon (Plugin) Requires an account at stumbleupon.com
- Twitterbar (Plugin) Requires an account at twitter.com
- Facebook (Social Network Site – create an account)
- digg.com (Networking / bookmark site – create an account)
- youtube.com (Networking / video site – create an account)
- itunes (MP3, video player – download)
- skype (Download) [note: I don't recall if they specifically suggested Skype, but he definitely mentions that he uses it and it's a great tool used for communication]

Another tool that you will definitely want to get is an RSS reader. During one of the videos Ed Dale suggests creating an account at bloglines.com. However, I’m already a user and a big fan of netvibes.com, which is also a free tool. If you don’t already use an RSS reader, you may want to go with bloglines so that if they explain how to do something specific using that tool, you aren’t left wondering how to duplicate it in a similar tool. The choice is yours on this one.

After you get all the tools downloaded, installed, signed up and whatnot, you will want to try and find a team to join in the 30 day challenge forums. This is certainly not required, but suggested by Ed as a way to share ideas and to help keep you motivated. Next, log in to Facebook and search for the thirty day challenge group and join up. Also, you may want to search for other friends who are already facebook members and add them to your friends list. Based on what I’ve seen so far, networking is going to play a big part in the 30 day challenge.

In day 1 of the challenge, Ed suggested that over the next 3 days the training and homework will be fairly light and then we will all have the weekend to catch up. So there is no need to panic if you haven’t had a chance to watch all the videos and listen to all the podcasts. Take your time. Get caught up and get ready to learn, earn and make some new friends over the course of the 30 day challenge.

When people ask what I do for a living I tell them I work for an Internet marketing company. Most of my work is focused on the technical side and I don’t really spend all that much time on the marketing side of things. I’m quite interested in the marketing side as I know that with a bit of work, there is great money to be made. I’ve made several efforts over the past couple years to do my own thing and none of them have really produced any great results. I had a one site that got to be really popular in a niche market for a few months and made me some cash, but overall, I haven’t been real successful. Hopefully, that’s about to change.

I was introduced to a site a week or so back called the ThirtyDayChallenge. Basically, during the month of August they run a course where they teach you how to go about making money on the Internet. The challenge is to earn $10 during the month of August using their techniques. I should mention that the site is free to sign up, the challenge is free, the training is free and all the tools that you will use during the Thirty Day Challenge are, you guessed it, free.

If you are at all interested in making money through Internet marketing, you would be silly to pass up this opportunity to learn from a group of Been-There-Done-That guys who already make a living in this field. That they are passing on their knowledge and techniques is awesome and should be taken advantage of. Not to mention the huge forum that is available on the site that already has over 2000 posts. If you are a Facebook user, check out the Thirty Day Challenge group, too.

If you decide take part in the challenge, find me on Facebook and add me as a friend so we can keep in touch on our progress in the challenge!

Best of luck!

This morning at just before 7:00 we met up with Justin, Jessi, Nita and Matthew along with nearly 100 other people who showed up to run with the Las Vegas Roadrunners. After a quick pep-talk from Tim, we broke up in to groups based on your expected time to finish the race.

The run was supposed to be 30 minutes. The groups would run 15 minutes out and then 15 minutes back. I made a few mistakes this morning and it caused me to run too hard and long.

Here is the list of mistakes I made:

• forgot my heart rate monitor
• forgot my watch
• left my iPod in the car
• ran too long before walking

I know for sure my heart rate was somewhere north of 160 and probably closer to 180. My “zone” is around 135-140.
I started out in the 2:15 half-marathon group. I ran with them for a while but eventually stopped to walk. At some point they turned around and i didn’t realize it. Because I didn’t have a watch, i just sorta kept going… When I finally turned around, I was one of the last runners heading back. Oops!

For next week, I will correct my previous mistakes and I will drop down to the 2:30 half-marathon group. We will see how that goes.