The end of a year is always a great time for reflection and one of the small exercises Jane and myself do every year is to make a list of all the people who have helped or influenced us the most. This is my list and I thought it might be interesting to share.

• Jane Sharp, my wife, soul mate and life partner. We are each others rock and nobody supports me more. Jane for letting me spend those thousands of dollars, on this internet dream of mine, before actually making money - thank you.
• Tissa Godavitarne from Acme People Search who unknowingly showed me it was possible to make money and taught me the value of openness and integrity when running an online business. It is one thing to be hard-headed in business, but you do not have to lie and cheat to achieve success. All you charlatans out there take note.
• All friends and colleagues at the A.P.S. Forum, I'm not going to name you individually because I'm sure to miss someone out, but this is where my internet marketing skills came together. We had, and still have quite a few lively discussions!
• Barbara Zabel for making me realise that if you are using email for you advertising then you have to do it on a massive scale. If you want to know how to advertise online then you will find everything you need to know on Barbie's sites and the info is all free.
• Walter Baylis , I just like the guy! This just goes to show the power of video and those of us not using it should definitely make a start pretty soon. There is no better way for your potential customers to get to 'know, like and trust' you. Just about all Walt's blog posts have video in them and because of that people can see exactly who they are dealing with.
  
• Last but not least the building team here on Crete. Lee, Mark, Ian and Grant, I could not have done it without you. Thanks.

So that's my list, and a big thank you to everybody. Also not mentioned but very much-loved and appreciated are all our wonderful family and friends. Our life is blessed and I hope yours is too, have a really great 2011. David