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1.6.10 - Ten ways to get more done in less time

Web entrepreneurs, especially those who work outside the confines of the traditional workspace, often have trouble managing their time.

This article proves 10 time-tested methods to get more work done than before AND free up the time we tend to ‘borrow’ from outside our work schedule.

These suggestions are work well for bloggers, entrepreneurs and especially anyone whose work routine needs to be flexible because of their family / social circumstances. The key is to integrate these habits into your daily routine, otherwise it’s not going to bring you any results.

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Filed under: Help Yourself - 1 Comments

1.6.10 - Quality vs Success: What is more important for you?

On one hand, you have the burning desire to create something remarkable, memorable, and of sheer quality. It takes time, love and hard work, and you run the risk that it will go unappreciated, for after all you are pandering to your own notion of what needs to be said and done. After all, to paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, you don’t do art to make money, you do art to make your soul grow.

On the other hand, there’s the real, gut-wrenching need to make money (or any other metric of success – search rankings, pageviews, awards, booty). This is the drive to optimize, to tap into market consciousness, measure what works (and what doesn’t), and to ruthlessly churn out content (or products – define your own output) according to your scientific formula of success (usually translates into PageViews = Money).

We know that quality and success CAN go hand in hand – it’s just that success is easier without if you don’t have to worry about quality and it’s the execution of an idea that makes the real difference, not how good it is.

As a professional blogger and entrepreneur, I face the quality v success challenge every day. There are thousands of blogs in dozens of niches that are doing spectacularly well by following the PageViews = Money formula and are quite successful ventures for their owners, although at their core the product is decidedly third-rate. Reading these blogs angers me because I expect better from the top bloggers, but at the same time there’s an admiration for their unwavering commitment to doing what works and continued amazement at how we overestimate the intelligence of our readers (selfishly, I might add).

So… what’s more important for you – creating quality or creating success?

This article was written on 1 Dec 2007 for Performancing.com.

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1.6.10 - Three steps for writing good blog posts

Thord (he of Swedish descent and bearing a reputation for ‘crack’ design skills) writes about the two most important skills a blogger can have.

#2 is knowing how to blow your own horn (‘toot’ is so politically correct it gives me a shiver). Thord discusses it in some detail, and I like this part best:

Some of us have some kind of roadblock built in that stops us from promoting ourselves. Get over it. Or get run over.

The #1 skill Thord talks about is knowing how to write good blog posts. Seeing as how T left the door open there, here’s my two (or three) cents on how one may go about writing ‘good’ blog posts.

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1.6.10 - Three ways to immediately improve your networking skills

Promoting websites online, just like in the offline world, is about finding the right people with the right resources and having them help you get the word out. By yourself, you are nowhere near as effective as when you have a network of contacts and friends working together to help you promote your new venture.

How do we do this? There are three key steps:

  1. Building the network
  2. Making the right contacts
  3. Leveraging the network

This article discusses the above topics and shows you how to build a network of contacts you can use to get more traffic to your website. That’s not the only purpose of such a network – you can use a network in various ways – community intelligence, resource pool, business opportunities, and much more.

In short, if you want to learn how to build your social network of contacts, this article is for you. Read on…

The Big Networking Secret: It’s Easy

Now before we get to the list (I don’t mind if you scroll down, but this next bit sets the foundation for it), let me explain what I mean by “it’s easy“: using your personal social network to promote your website is quite difficult if you don’t have many contacts / the right contacts – saying that social networking doesn’t work because you don’t have influential people on your list is a cop-out. Similarly, you cannot expect to build a list of A-list contacts overnight – building a network of useful contacts takes time; relationships are cultivated and trust is built through reciprocal actions over time.

So what’s easy about it? If you remove the unrealistic expectations and instead focus on the basic principles that can help you build large, influential social networks over time, you’ll find that it’s a relatively simple and straightforward process.

Networking is as easy as making new friends. If you can make new friends, then you can network. But making new friends does take work. So it’s not magic.

At any time, you’ll find successful entrepreneurs using the help of their contacts and friends to launch ventures with brilliant success – there is a method behind this ‘magical’ approach, and you don’t need to buy a $999 course to teach you this method.

The right advice (say, something like this article you’re reading), some common sense (use your own judgment or just ask for help) and concentrated action and commitment will get you more than what an expensive course can teach you.

Alright then – with that out of the way, it’s time to get to the list.

1. Make New Friends By Helping Others

The basis of an effective social network is a steady stream of new contacts – a network doesn’t have any impact unless there are enough people to make a difference.

The habit of making new friends and helping others out without asking for anything upfront is one that takes time to cultivate and your adoption of this habit depends on how you treat others. If you’re naturally outgoing, you’ll find it easier to get in touch with and contact new people. If you don’t have any hangups towards helping others for free, then you’ll be one step ahead when it comes to sowing the seeds of a new relationship.

Find New Friends

This step will stump you but in fact it’s the easiest of them all – simply flock to those places where people of similar interests are hanging out, and make a point to participate in the general discussion. An example of such a place is Performancing, where I and many others have flocked to over the years, gradually become a part of the community and now find new opportunities each day.

The leading blogs in your niche are a good way to get started. Forums (for networking) are a personal favourite because of the amazing returns although they require more commitment and personal involvement to make it work.

Also, remember that in such new communities you’ll find avenues towards other communities as well – it pays to pick and choose those communities where you can find the right balance between value, investment and fun (it doesn’t HAVE to be a chore, you know).

Help Others

Make it a point to provide helpful information / advice / support to at least one person each day. This is a major stumbling block for people because of the personal investment this requires but once you realise multiplier effect that’s attached to each ‘effort’ of yours, you’ll be surprised at why more people aren’t doing this.

Just help others. Quite often you’ll hear people voicing their problems / concerns in public forums / communities that you’ll be frequenting – if it takes a few minutes of your time to point them in the right direction, do it right there and then.

Invest in others. As they grow and build up their resources and their own networks, your own network will be growing as well thanks to their efforts.

It’s also worth pointing out that extra attention (bordering on stalking / invasion of personal privacy) will freak people out, so if you just *love* to help people, you might want to tone things down a bit.

2. Selective Networking: Kiss Ass

Ryan explains this far better than I can in his article, so let’s listen to what he has to say:

I call it selective (back)networking and here’s the idea: the internet is just like any other human network. There are hierarchies of authority. If you want to be successful, you need to move up the hierarchy.

…

The key to building a (back)network is to intentionally and selectively seek out people who 1) have power and leverage 2) are smart and capable and 3) are fair in their online relationships. By building up a social “backbone” of good friends in high-places, you’ll be able to execute your plans a lot faster, realize profit a lot quicker, and avoid burn-out a lot easier (ten shoulders are better than one).

“But Ryan Caldwell, you’re already successful. What about those of us who are just getting started?”

Suck up and kiss ass.

That’s it. That’s how you get into my good graces. Start doing me favors and I’ll send some love your way. Ask me to do you a favor before you’ve proven your worthiness to me, and I’ll ignore you. Completely and utterly ignore you. But if you’ve got something to offer me, something that I truly benefit from…then you’ve got a friend.

This isn’t easy advice to follow – especially if you’ve skipped step 1, where you adopt the mindset of making new friends and helping people. On the other hand, once you realise the value that networking brings to you, the natural progression is to go after the right contacts.

Identify Powerful Contacts

Why do you think people bend over backwards when it comes to internet celebrities like John Chow and Matt Cutts? These people have an influential, authoritative voice in the blogosphere. When they talk, people listen. When they point, people follow.

Your end game is to have people like these on your side, so that they point to you and people (and traffic and revenue) start flowing in your direction.

Identify the powerful contacts in your niche (and in niches related to it) – then figure out how to get in their good books.

Make Yourself Valuable First

As Ryan says, you have to prove your own value to people who are vastly more influential than you – this translates into building your own online worth by playing with the smaller fish first. It’s a step-by-step process – you won’t shoot for Darren Rowse if you can’t get into Deb’s good books, so work your way up the ladder by gathering momentum.

Chris Garrett’s excellent article on ‘Positioning‘ is a good intro into how to make yourself and your website more valuable.

3. Learn and Practice the Art of Following Up

It’s one of those things that you learn from experience, although recently a friend (and new influential contact) Steve Amoia drove this point home when we were talking about building a network of contacts in the footballing world.

The basic idea is this: every time you ask your network (or a contact) for their help, follow up by thanking them for their input, giving them as much credit as possible and by reciprocating the favor when asked for. If you want to by cynical about it, then consider that people don’t mind helping as long as they see a benefit in it – whether it’s the other person stoking their ego or a reciprocation of that favor or even a monetary benefit.

Learn what your contacts value and when following up, reciprocate in a way that they will appreciate the most.

And to borrow from Nick’s excellent “increase search engine traffic” article:

Be generous – if you respect your network, and work hard to be part of the community surrounding your topic, the rewards can really pay off — never abuse it, it tends to backfire in all kinds of horrible ways.

Wrapping Up

Online marketing is about people and long-term results, not about algorithms or short-term gains. If you start investing in your social network now, you’ll reap the benefits many times over in the future.

This article was written on 29 Nov 2007 for Performancing.com.

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1.6.10 - Ten networking tips for non-US bloggers

As a blogger residing in a third world country, networking opportunities are limited for me. Logistical problems mean that it is bloody hard to hop over to the US for conferences – and in many cases, us non-US bloggers are at a disadvantage in terms of real networking opportunities.

However, if you’re a non-US blogger (or a non-US/UK blogger), there are several other networking opportunities available for you. Let’s start with the easiest, managing online networking.

It goes without saying that for maximum success, you need to set goals, figure out the best way to achieve them and then get busy moving from point A to point B. It’s the same with networking.

A. ONLINE NETWORKING

Harness the power of email, instant messaging, forums, blogging, Skype, LinkedIn and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Embrace the online medium and learn how everything works and how you can use it to your benefit.

Some tips:

1. Write Effective Emails

There’s great advice on this subject by Merlin Mann, Guy Kawasaki and the Seton Hill University.

While you should practice the Tim Ferriss formula for dealing with email, it also helps that when you actually do read and reply to your email you do it in a manner that gleans maximum results AND doesn’t require you to go back and forth like you would in an informal IM session.

2. Treat IM conversations as ‘Deadline’ Meetings

Set an agenda before you start, deal with all issues and come out with a plan of action by the end of the conversation. In fact, you should adopt this mindset for every business-related discussion you have, not just IMs.

Like I’ve said earlier, there are times when IM becomes a necessity. However in 99% of the cases, IM is a means to an end. When you’re networking, you have limited time and more importantly you want to deliver value, not just waste the other person’s time.

There is one exception – beyond initial contact, there is always a time when you need to build a good rapport with your contacts, and sometimes the least time-consuming method to do so is IM (I can hold 6 conversations on IM at the same time, I can’t do that on the phone).

3. Master Online Social Networks

The rewards are amazing (and I’m not talking about being a Digg power user). The contacts and relationships you build by participating in forums and social networks are invaluable plus the sheer speed of the social web makes it possible for you to find out about breaking news in real time (if your work depends on being first with the news or acting quickly on new information, this is again critical).

4. Online is NOT Everything

Despite our reliance on the Internet, nothing beats a face-to-face meet or a talk on the phone in terms of building trust. I remember how I had introduced myself to Liz at the beginning and she refused to help me until we’d talked and she could confirm that I was a real person (I think the charming voice helped as well ).

The point is, contact and relationship building is incomplete without the human element. In the absence of a physical meeting, use Skype or Google Talk to talk to your contacts and build strong relationships.

B. DEVELOP A LOCAL NETWORK

Living online is a major obstacle if you want to build a network of business contacts in the real world where you live. Most people will still prefer doing business face-to-face if they can make it happen, and that leaves you with no excuse to not pursue building a local network of contacts in your city / country.

Some suggestions:

5. Use Online Networks To Find Local Contacts

I’ve used my blogging, forums and LinkedIn to attract local business and contacts, and I wasn’t even trying to do that at the time.
Use LinkedIn, Facebook, the blogging interweb and forums (as well as any / all contacts you have) to discover local contacts. You might be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

6. Meet Recruiters

Recently I had the opportunity to meet a local recruiter. Usually I’d shun such contacts at first thought, because the last thing on my mind is to work for a ‘boss’. However, recruiting companies also offer you the chance to build your assets – that is, acquire access to a resource pool that you can later use as leverage for your own projects or any outsourcing project that you happen to snag as a consultant.

Yesterday I was talking to an entrepreneur who wants to take over the world (not literally) and he asked me if I knew any good programmers – I told him I had access to a recruiting company and his eyes lit up (I’m assuming, of course, since he was sitting in the US).

Don’t pass up opportunities to build your assets. Not only will they help you in your projects in the future but they will also make you more valuable as a contact, which will eventually mean that people will come to you instead of the other way around.

7. Meet Local Reps

Have you met folks working for Google in your country? I suggest you seek them out and do so at the first opportunity. While the setup is different depending on which country you’re living in, chances are that you’ll be able to network with people from Google / Yahoo / Microsoft / etc etc at local conferences, seminars and trade shows.

From my (very limited) experience, local reps are almost always evangelists and as a result have a vast array of contacts and opportunities themselves. Get in, make yourself useful and nurture the relationship.

C. THE ART OF SUCCESSFUL NETWORKING

For all the tips and advice, the important bits are foundational and have little to do with networking itself – I’m not here to preach how you should conduct yourself, on the other hand these traits will amplify your networking efforts.

8. Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Have you ever met a person who talks a big game but at the end of the day they rarely have anything to show for it? Would you recommend such a person as a business contact to your network?

Talking a good game is important, but it’s even more important to have the track record to back you up.

9. Be Open and Available

The Internet is a blessing and a curse – it gives us instant access to everything but it also makes us anonymous (some might say that’s a blessing in disguise). It also hits your social life quite hard, so you’ll have to make an extra effort to get your butt out of your chair and move out of your house to meet people.

When it comes to networking, especially when you’re starting out, you need to make it as easy as possible for people to contact you and be ready to meet / talk to new people whenever the opportunity arises. It’s more of a mindset than a habit.

Of course, there’s the obvious exception – if you’re as busy as Matt Cutts or Brad Callen and you’re getting more than 5 emails a minute, you probably need several filters (read: assistants) in between you and people wanting to talk to you (with the odd IM / separate email account for ‘urgent / private’ stuff).

10. Understand How People Tick

You’re in the peoples’ business, so you need to know how people think, act and react and modify your approach accordingly. This is one of those cases where reading that self-help stuff works (make friends, influence people and all that). Learn it, practice it and use this knowledge to your advantage.

So there you have it – solid, actionable advice to improve your networking even if you can’t attend those cool conferences that all the big boys seem to be going to. If you’re looking for a shortcut, here’s the best bet (even better than attending local meets, which was so obvious that I refuse to mention it in the 10 points above): hitch a ride as a consultant with a local firm who will send you to such a conference. Alternatively, sign up as a consultant / contractor to a US-based firm who would (cross your fingers) eventually call you to a meet / training seminar / etc.

What is your #1 networking tip?

This article was originally written on 16 Nov 2007 on Performancing.com.

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1.6.10 - 12 link building tactics

As 2007 turns into 2008 (yes, its more than a month away but you can’t fault me for preparing right now, can you?), it’s worth taking a hard look at our blogging and promotion strategies and how those will evolve in the future.

Today I’d like to cover 12 link building tactics that will be most effective in the coming year – like all such lists, there’s a good chance that I’ve left something out so if you have something to add, please let me know in the comments.

1- Linkbait Mainstream Media

Being picked up by the CNN, Fox News, BBC or the Guardian not only leads to plenty of traffic (the type that would crash your server) but also leads to other bloggers picking you up as a news source. Traffic, new readers, links from the blogosphere and links from highly trusted websites.

It’s not an easy target to achieve, but you can get there by doing the following:

  • Network like the energizer bunny – before you can be recognised as an authority in your niche you need to make yourself known to everyone who matters.
  • Establish a pattern for being the first – Quite often just being the first person to break the news can lead you to scoring dozens of links – and once you build a reputation for being first, you’ll have reporters and other bloggers turning to you to break the news. Position yourself so you can benefit from such opportunities.
  • Linking to top news sources often brings in residual traffic (tech bloggers linking to Techcrunch’s stories will confirm), and in several cases it also results in other bloggers picking you up as a secondary source on the issue.
  • All of this only works if you have something valuable to offer – whether it’s analysis, exclusive images or your own research. Just regurgitating the news isn’t going to be of as much help.

And if you haven’t already, read this article on how to attract attention from mainstream media.

2- Contests and Giveaways

I expect the tactic of contests and prize giveaways as a means to generate links to be abused beyond reason in the coming year. As things stand, it’s an easy way to build links and once your site builds some traction and a readership, it’s also a good way to reward your readers and attract new ones.

The key with such contests is to:

  • provide value to readers
  • break from tradition and do something more creative than an ‘article writing contest’
  • make a meaningful contribution to your blog
  • engage the community, not just your readers

To expand on that last point – I think it’s very important to give readers – many of whom will have blogs / be active participants elsewhere on the Net – something that they can do offsite, preferably on their own site or whichever forum they frequent the most.

3- Blogger’s / Site Owner’s Personal Brand

Let me illustrate this with a real-world example:

If John Doe and his buddies had started Search Engine Land and pumped it with timely news and top-notch SEO news and analysis, it would have been a sensational new entry into the SEO blogging A-list, after a few months of consistency of course.

On the other hand, with Danny Sullivan’s reputation, SEL was A-list before it launched – not to mention that Danny’s rep also brought in other star bloggers, which in turn fueled the growth of SEL. Newcomers in the industry wouldn’t be able to achieve this level of success so quickly (if at all).

How can you build your personal brand ? Quality, consistency, networking, and timing.

4- Cherry-Picking Bloggers

Jim Boykin wrote in May 2006 about cherry-picking links and while I think it’s still an excellent way to build links, the smarter way to do this going forward is to cherry pick bloggers in terms of building relationships.

By investing in relationships, you ensure that the next time you linkbait / launch a new site / do widgetbait, you’ll have a set of influential bloggers reading you and as a result you will get at least some coverage for that event. Once that happens a few times, promoting your site becomes that much easier as your network of friendly bloggers and site owners will be helping you along the way.

Surely that beats a one-time link-based investment?

5- Industrial Strength Linkbait
Linkbaiting, despite the proliferation of absolute crap in its name, is a valuable promotional and link building concept. While linkbaiting – especially industrial strength linkbaiting – will still continue strong in 2008, there will be an increasing trend towards more viral content and less dependence on traditional social media channels.

Expect that ‘industrial strength’ to be focused on creating quality instead of quantity, because as more and more people jump into the linkbaiting boat it’s getting harder and harder to promote your traditional linkbait. Either you’re already a celebrity, or you need to create something kickass.

An example of awesome linkbait.

6- Podcasting

Content is king, but alternative media – especially audio / visual media – is fast catching up in terms of attracting links. Of course, flame bait (the idiotic kind) doesn’t do you any favours, but then again I’m guessing Scoble knew that already?

7- Niche SEO

It stands to reason that someone who has prior experience in an industry will have more contacts and better inside knowledge than a newcomer. If you’re an SEO consultant, this is something you can use to your advantage. If you’re a site owner, learn to leverage your contacts and knowledge of what works (such as what type of content gets links) to differentiate yourself from your competition (and protect yourself against newcomers).

8- Prior Footholds in the Industry

If you’re launching a new website, having an established one in the same (or related) niche is a big bonus. On the other hand, buying an old site can also give the same sort of legitimacy.

Expect to see more and more consolidation happen in 2008 – and if you’re already established in a niche, branch out now rather than latter.

9- Offline Marketing

Offline marketing is a key ingredient for any online business and by 2008 you’ll see this as being one of the main factors differentiating between businesses going to the top, fast and businesses going nowhere, fast.

How are you expanding your promotion offline? Do you attend conferences in your niche? Are you (or your business) referenced in print media? Do you get published in print media?

Despite the importance of the Internet print media is still top gun when it comes to ‘making it’ and that’s one of the areas you should be focusing on next year.

10- Old School SEO

In case you’re wondering, all of it still works – smart site architecture, getting the right links at launch time, topical content, balanced internal linking, relevant link building, cherry picking links – all of that still works, so don’t marginalise it. However, knowing SEO basics isn’t enough to give you an edge in itself – you need to take advantage of all the different link building opportunities available to you.

11- Widgetbait

I’ll let Nick Wilson tell the story here:

The linkbait landscape of 2007 is different than two years ago, requiring some rethink and reassessment of strategies. Linkbait is the smart move everyone needs to be doing. However, the linkbait of 2005 may not cut it with today’s more desensitized audiences. The smart linkbaiters will pursue the holy grail of widgetbait.

and…

The holy grail of linkbaiting in 2007 will be the widget.

In late 2005 and early 2006, I came up with a linkbaiting concept to put my previous company, Performancing, on the social media map. That idea was the Performancing Blog Editor Firefox extension that has achieved nearly half a million downloads on Mozilla alone.

It was a high risk, high reward strategy that not only worked but worked so well that it went beyond mere “linkbait” and is about to become a standalone brand in its own right.

Widgetbaiting is a high-risk link building strategy because you have to spend a lot of time and money in developing it / having it developed, and that’s still no guarantee of whether it will be successful or not. On the other hand, when it IS successful, the results are often spectacular well-worth the effort.

12- Predictive SEO

While this is a strategy that has been used successfully for some time now, predicting search queries and traffic is going to be another one of those tactics you’ll have success using in 2008.

In David P’s recent research on ranking factors in Google, one of the things he didn’t mention was all things being equal, a page on a highly-trusted website would rank higher than a page on a newer, less-trusted website. Call it trust and authority, call it Google’s bias towards old sites, the bottom line is that well-established websites and blogs find it easier to rank high for 3-4 keyword search terms. I’ve personally used this strategy with a lot of success at Soccerlens – and as the old saying goes, the rich keep getting richer so if your site doesn’t have any T&A at the moment you should get busy getting it.

Also See: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Link Builders

Which link building tactic do you think will be most effective in 2008?

This article was written on 10 Nov 2007 for Performancing.com.

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1.6.10 - Blogging on the move

If you’re a problogger and you travel more than once every 3 months, you need some sort of ‘living on the road’ solution to keep you plugging in and functioning (work-wise, of course). It may be a romantic (and healthy) notion that you should ditch all things work and Net when taking a break, but that’s for those rare once or twice an year vacations.

If, like, me, you’re on the road for a week a month (even car accidents don’t stop me anymore), you don’t only need the right setup (read gadgets and software) but also the right routine – simply put, nothing fracks up your work like an uncertain, unplanned work schedule.

The Tools

If you’re expecting a Internet Tablet / Pocket PC a la Nick and Chris, you’ll be disappointed. I’m packing the Nokia E61i which is light-weight but remarkably effective for blogging on the move (I was sold after this comparison, although to be honest the iPhone and W950 aren’t serious competitors to the E61i).

Thanks to cheap (but annoyingly slow) cellular data plans here, Internet access is rarely a problem. Combine that with the E61i’s WiFi capabilities, you’ve got a working laptop replacement for your travels.

Of course there’s a laptop in the mix as well (a Dell Inspiron 6400 running XP, no exploding batteries though), but when I’m traveling I tend to work light and instead of carrying the laptop, I rely on other people have computers with working Internet connections and carry a Kingston 2GB USB drive packed with portable apps.

You can literally take a whole week off and work from your smartphone and your usb drive – talk about traveling light, eh? There’s a second phone (Nokia 6233) that I use for regular voice calls and old-fashioned networking. Both phones work as decent cameras and there’s the customary iPod nano (with the 6233 an able music backup) to help me stay focused.

The Methods

This is where it gets more interesting. It’s almost impossible for me to work on a regular schedule at home; traveling makes it that much harder. As I discussed earlier this week in my piece on time management, it’s ultra-important to reduce unnecessary activities and especially remove distractions when you’re doing heavy lifting (work that requires a lot of concentration.

Obviously you’re not going to get much done if all you do is read feeds and emails, especially when you have less time in the first place. The big secret – it’s not so much a secret as a changing your mindset, which is not easy to do – is to delegate your blog management. In fact, here are 3 easy strategies you can use to lessen your blogging / working load:

  • Outsource – either temporarily or permanently
  • Arrange for guest bloggers
  • Write articles in advance and set them to publish in the future – this doesn’t work so well for newsy niches, so you might have to hire and train people you can rely on.

It’s imperative that you set aside time every day to work – usually I find that it’s a lot easier find plenty of spare time late afternoon / early evening as opposed to morning, but that’s probably a side-effect of my night-time routine – your mileage may vary. In any case, one big block of work time is easier to manage while traveling, and while working / blogging off your SmartPhone / PDA / Blackberry means you’re usually ‘offline’, it helps if you can find some space to yourself as well. And if you’re not used to working in such surroundings, the music always helps.

What’s Your Secret?

How do you manage the demands of working on the move?

This article was originally written on 9 Nov 2007 for Performancing.com.

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1.6.10 - Optimizing for search users vs Optimizing for search engines

While reading Stoney deGeyeter’s article – 10 Useless SEO Worries (his booboo on PageRank apart, I agree with the fellow on everything else) – I couldn’t help but notice this gem:

Is it smart to work on getting your site ranked on MSN, Yahoo, and Ask? Sure, absolutely. But never at the expense of your Google rankings. Never. While different algorithms are employed, they all tend to run off the same basic premise: a good site will rank well, regardless of the algorithm used to evaluate it.
Don’t think that you need to optimize a page for each search engine. It doesn’t work that way. Just do good optimization and all engines will rate you accordingly.

Stoney’s argument is rock-solid and financially sound, even though the thought of being partial to Google amounts to Google-worshipping and therefore leaves a bad taste in the mouths of some people.

Rebecca from SEOmoz talks about ‘whether you should optimize your site for each individual search engine or not’ (Rebecca says no, of course she’s right…). I’ll this a bit further and say that you should:

Optimize for search users, not search engines.

As Stoney and Rebecca say, it’s important to adhere to basic SEO principles that will allow your website to be picked up and index by search engines. And of course, you need to understand how search engines rank websites, because without that knowledge you’ll interpret fluctuations in your search rankings as magic. Good if you’re interested in delusions, but not helpful in marketing your business.

Beyond the understanding bit though, it’s not about optimizing for specific search engines, it’s about optimizing for search users.

So…What Do Search Users Want?

In the absence of hard research at hand’s reach, I’ll posit a good-enough answer:

Search users want search engines to read their minds and automatically serve up what they need, even if the searcher himself doesn’t know exactly what that is.

Search engines perform this task – clumsily but with increasing adeptness – by using a variety of methods: personalised search, trust and authority (T & A), vertical search, geotargeting, etc (insert fancy term for time and date based SERPs customisation). It pays to understand each of these methods but what if you could understand this as part of a simpler, more unified theory of reaching your customers?

Think of search users as a subset of your potential customer base. There are multiple methods of reaching your target audience – offline marketing, viral emails, search, newletters, social media, online video – with all these options, it’s a safe bet that if you’re only focusing on search, you’re missing out on a significant portion of your potential audience (and thus moolah-spinning opportunities). If search can be classified as just one part of your marketing, we can easily use a more unified and simpler theory of marketing that will help us increase search referrals while improving our chances of … say … bringing in traffic from offline media as well.

Believe it or not, wondering about what search users want is exactly the trap you shouldn’t be getting stuck in. The more efficient way of doing this to think about your audience at large, what they want and figure out the best way to deliver that. At the same time, it’s important to figure out how to reach as much of your target audience as possible – and search users are just a subset of that audience.

If you can figure out what your audience wants, you already have a good idea of what search users in your niche want. Then it’s down to a) structuring that information properly on your website and b) promoting the hell out of it. If you can get people (i.e. your target audience) talking about your website online (where talking means discussing in blogs, forums, etc), and if you can keep that conversation going AND growing, your work is pretty much done.

To quantify this in real terms, let’s take a seo blog. You pay good money to hire a writer to write about the latest seo tactics (with a twist – no self-respecting seo blogger goes in the industry without a hook / angle anymore) and let’s also suppose that you succeed in getting many blogs talking about your site. Conversation equals links (and note that these links are from sites within your niche). Eventually, the conversation reaches a tipping point, where everyone seems to be talking about you, from top to bottom, helping you to reach a big, big part of your audience.

How do you think your search rankings are going to look at this point (assuming you’re doing this in a less competitive niche than SEO, I’d say quite good)? Is this a result of optimizing for a particular search engine, or even optimizing for search users? Yes and no. Yes because the strategies you’ve used cover both search engines and search users.

No because you’re not working on optimizing for either per se – you’re just marketing your website using methods that work through a variety of mediums.

If the question comes up, think of optimizing for search users, not search engines. But if you really want to be successful online, focus on your audience and your marketing strategies as a whole.

Also Read: Are Search Engines Evil?

This article was originally written on 2 Nov 2007 for Performancing.com.

Filed under: SEO - No Comments

1.6.10 - Poaching writers and blog network ethics

One of the big plusses of the Internet is the ability to hire people from across the globe and have them work for you remotely. As a blog (and blog network) owner, I tend to take it for granted that I can, at any point in time, contact any of my bloggers and get them to write something on a particular topic without leaving the comfort of my office (or indeed, home).

The downside is that in the absence of any physical connections (they don’t come to the office to work for you every day), it’s a lot easier for other blog owners and blog networks to approach them. I’m not saying that it makes it easier for bloggers to leave – not at all, loyalty extends beyond borders and physical proximity – but with the access there’s a much greater chance of:

  • You not finding out about the exchange until its too late.
  • The poacher finding out the details of the arrangement from your writer and offering them a better package, perhaps something you can’t offer at the time.

Recently, a blog owner in my network forwarded an email conversation he’d had with a major retailer in our niche. They were interested in having him come on-board as one of their columnists. He’s saying no, but when you start discussing pay packages and everything the only thing a blog owner / network owner can count on is loyalty.

Which brings us to the question for the day: What do you do to keep your employees / network members loyal to you / the network?

This article was originally written on 24 Oct 2007 for Performancing.com.

Filed under: Blogging - No Comments

1.6.10 - Ten simple rules for online success

This article was inspired by an offhand rant in an IM session with David – thank you for listening mate.

Over the weekend I was looking at my own life (you know, the usual introspective Sundays) when I was – to put it mildly – interrupted by another whining session from someone who has been seeking success all their life and hasn’t achieved it. It made me angry at the time (hence the rant) but after a while I figured that for most people, going from failure to success was a process that they just couldn’t get started on.

I’ve tried to catalog that process here. It all starts with a plea to …

10. Stop Whining.

The world is a tough place, we get it. We ALL GET IT. You’re not doing yourself any favors by focusing on the bad stuff. In fact, you’re just polluting the world and bringing down the energy of the people unfortunate enough to be in hearing distance at the time (or as the case may be, to read what you write). The faster you get over your self-importance and start working on making things better (you know, real shit, like working on that linkbait that you can’t crack, or those blog posts that you don’t have the time for, or outsourcing that theme you just don’t know how to code), the faster you’ll get to where you want to be.

The fastest way to stop focusing on what’s wrong and start working on improving your current condition is to…

9. Channel Your Energies

Suppose that you’re shafted in a project you’re working on – the person who’s hired you collects the work and makes off without paying you. Understandably, you’re angry. But how would you deal with this anger? Venting is good (and necessary), but there is a difference between using that anger to achieve something positive and letting that anger eat you up inside.

Could you set in place practices that ensure that you get paid for 100% of your projects? Is there some way you can get back at the person who’s wronged you (religion allows for revenge, in case you’re objecting) without spending too much time / energy (publicly cataloging this incident on your blog / website / forum you frequent)?

At every junction of your life you’re presented by choices – and (as I venture dangerously into feel-good mumbo-jumbo) you’ve got a responsibility to yourself to make the right choices – the ones that help you move your life forward and take you towards your goals.

If something evokes a strong emotional reaction, find an outlet, get the initial and strongest reaction out of your system and then channel your remaining emotions into something constructive. To do this, you have to…

8. Focus

It’s easy to tell yourself that you must focus on a particular task, in practice its virtually impossible to do so if you have problems with paying attention. There’s no big secret to razor-sharp focus – barring genetic pre-dispositions and childhood habits, the best you can do to help yourself focus is to:

  • catalog distractions and ruthlessly eliminate them.
  • setup a stable daily routine for your work – forming stable work habits are the best way to get (and stay) focused on your work.

The biggest obstacle to focused effort is your resistance to doing tasks / work that you’re not interested in (and in contrast, the easiest way to build focus is to work on something you enjoy). This leads us to the next two steps…

7. Find Yourself and Your Target

When it comes to success (and making money), it’s important to know what you want. To figure that out, you need to know what your strengths are (fields of work as well as type of work) and what impassions you. While your interests will evolve with time, getting your bearings right at the start makes it easier to make course corrections in the future.

Once you know what you want, you have to figure out what to do.

Let’s say you’re struggling to provide a comfortable living for yourself, and your aim is to earn at least $5k / month. Knowing what you want at this point is not enough – you need to choose projects (and therefore develop habits) that bring you to that total. In other words, if you cannot achieve a goal in your current circumstances then you need to change them, step out of your comfort zone and in short cause radical change in your life in order to get to where you want to be.

The most common excuse (see #10 on how to deal with such excuses) I’ve heard (and given a few times myself) is that stepping out of the comfort zone is difficult, and there are risks involved with it. A different version of this is the worst excuse known to man (because it is self-deceptive and only manages to keep you stuck in the same place for a longer period of time):

“I’m working on it, and I’ve got it all figured out – it’ll take me this long (insert fashionably long period, more than 6 months) to achieve this target (something that this person could achieve in less than 3 months if they changed the rules and made a genuine effort to step out and take a risk).”

Yes, take risks … but calculated risks, backed by knowing exactly what you want and knowing how to get there (points 6 to 3 will help).

6. Sacrifice / Self-Discipline

So now you know what to do. The problem is, you probably don’t have the time to get it done (sound familiar?). When we talked about ‘Focus’ (#8), the key ideas were to eliminate distractions and build habits that help you focus more.

Eliminating distractions means sacrificing things that you may enjoy ‘now’ but are not helping you achieve your goals – such as talking to your friend on the phone at 10am in the morning, or browsing Amazon for Dilbert books at 10:30am. Switching your phone off (having an assistant or using a second number that’s only for emergencies works better), avoiding checking your email like the plague (twice a day, max – otherwise you’ll spend your day looking at email piling up) and staying offline (unplug your DSL / cable modem and hide it if you have to) when you’re working are just a few of the sacrifices you’ll need to make, and this requires self-discipline.

It’s not rocket science – by establishing a regular routine (and thus making it easy for you to develop habits), you can eliminate distractions to a large extent. The problem comes when you have a variable routine (like me) – in that case, at least ensure that you work for the same amount of time, at the same hours, each day.

5. Consistent Effort

It may seem moronically obvious to hear this, but you need to work hard consistently on a project in order for it to be successful (insert suitable plant growing analogy here). While you don’t have to wait a century to get something done, you also can’t build Rome in a day (or something to that effect).

The unfortunate thing is, most people are divided into two categories. They’re either bloody impatient, or they’re stuck in the pattern on wanting to do everything by themselves. Neither approach will succeed. You need some patience (consistency is more like it), and more importantly, you need to leverage…

4. Other People’s Resources

By yourself, you can only expand to a certain point (self-cloning is out of the question, at least for now). With the help of others, there is no limit to what you can do (although self-cloning would still be out of the question).

Outsource. Hire. Give yourself more time to do the important stuff by getting others to do the unimportant stuff. This form of leverage usually costs money, but the time you free up can allow you to earn a lot more – allowing you to be better off than when you were doing everything yourself.

If you haven’t done this yet, stop everything a read this article.

3. Always Improve

Most people will read this article, bookmark it and then forget about it. Some will apply one thing from it, and then forget the rest.

Truth be told, improving one time is almost as useless as not improving at all. If you take one step forward and then step, you haven’t really gone anywhere. The real benefits will come when you’ve taken several steps forward, one after the other, in a short period of time. You don’t change your life with a single step – it takes a journey (even a short one) to move past old comfort zones and establish yourself at a higher level of success.

And whatever you do, don’t settle for being good enough.

2. Share

Sharing your knowledge, your expertise, your experiences – sharing what you know – is one of the fastest ways to improve your own understanding of how things work. And (to take the cynical route) even if you think you’re successful enough, the network benefits you receive from helping others ensure that sharing is perhaps the best way to achieve #4 (leveraging other people’s resources).

1. Act Now

Do you still think that there’s any ’secret’ recipe to success? Everything I’ve said here is common sense – find out what you want, do whatever it takes to get it, even if it means giving up on smaller dreams and getting help from the world around you. It’s not magic, there’s no mystery, the keys are right in front of you.

All you have to do is take action and get started. What are you waiting for?

This article was originally written on 23 Oct 2007 for Performancing.com.

Filed under: Help Yourself - No Comments

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