Internet Business and Personal Success

Another reminder that you can learn something almost anyplace, as long as you’re paying attention.

Tonight while at the grocery store I witnessed a great example of this. A gentleman was at one of those new-fangled self checkout booths, and apparently pressed the button to view things in Spanish. The lady attending to the booths noticed this and made a comment on his selection (he didn’t look like Spanish would be his first language).

He said that he liked to keep in practice, and selected the spanish language option when he had a chance to brush up.

The lady at the checkout was impressed, and so was I.

What a great example of doing something that might slightly stretch your comfort zone for whatever reason. Most of us would press the English button, even if we knew some Spanish at one time. This might make things go a little smoother, but it wouldn’t help us to grow or progress in any way.

There are many things that we tend to do because they’re a habit, and easy…

• Checking email frequently.
• Surfing the web endlessly (uh.. “research”).
• Watching TV.
• Going to the same restaurants, stores and supermarkets.
• Reading the same newspapers, blogs, author’s books.
• Learning too much, doing too little.

It’s been said that you should work on your strengths, instead of your weaknesses (farm those out), but this is different. This is about working on habits that are keeping your thinking locked into patterns that are counterproductive. This is about pushing your boundaries so that you can do new things, and succeed in new ways.

So… Do something different. Do something a little challenging. Take the above list, and expand upon it, then reverse the habit and do the opposite.

This is especially important when you have a project you are “working on”, but it’s not something you’ve done before. You know you need to do it. You know that if you don’t, it’ll be just another in a long line of half-done projects. It’s just out of your comfort zone.

All learning requires you to break out of this comfort zone. It doesn’t have to be difficult, and the easier the better. But it will require stretching your mind, and doing some new things.

Keep thinking!

-Tim

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this blog.

My conclusion is that it’s boring. No, it’s not that the information isn’t great, it’s that there’s little or no personal connection. Even though it typically takes a couple of hours to compose a post, it comes off as dry. You don’t know me, or the reasons behind my posts. This is BAD.

It’s bad because when I take a survey of blogs I visit and look forward to, they exude the personality of the owner. Sometimes it’s through technical details, sometimes through stories and writing style. Usually there are comments left for every post, and they can go both positive or negative–but always with respect.

I have a lot of things to talk about. Some could truly set you up for success. It might be quick. It might be slow. But if the ideas are presented in a way that makes an impact, they could be the start of dramatic change in your life. If they aren’t presented in an interesting or personal way, they will likely fail spectacularly.

If you have a blog, or are “about to start one” (JUST DO IT ALREADY!), do yourself a favor and look at the blogs you frequent. Ask yourself why you visit them, and what you could do to gain the same following. Is it the personal stories? The controversy? The technical details presented in every post?

Whatever it is that makes these blogs special to you also make them special to their readers. If you don’t have this connection to your audience, you will never gain a following, and you will suffer with a few regular readers (and your mom). I love my mom, but she’s not exactly my target reader, and probably isn’t yours.

The posts which follow WILL do a lot to bring myself to the table. Some ideas I have, which you might copy, include:

• Tell personal stories, and give detailed examples.
• Stir up controversy when something is going on which you don’t belive it–or have a differnt perspective of.
• Stop filtering and editing posts - the biggest obstacle to letting yourself show through is rewriting, and over thinking posts. Stop it!
• Limit the time you take in posting. This helps you to stop over thinking a post.
• Break away from your primary topic from time to time so that people see a more fully rounded person. Talk about your trips, pets, and family. If you have a running “bit” about some personal element in your life that people can follow, it’ll do wonders for your readership.
• Stop taking things seriously. Spontaneous is usually 1000 times more interesting than calculated.
• Reframe “unrelated” information to fit your niche, and personal style. Visit blogs on music, technology and magic, if that’s what interests you.  See how things might related to your blog.
• Learn from everything, good and bad.  Outside the box.  I’ve got over a page of notes on life lessons I’ve learned from our cat! —–I’ll share that in the future as well.

There are many others, but the point is, without the personality of the writer, who gives a sh*t!

Please let me know what you find most interesting in the blogs you visit. It will help both of us in bringing you the best possible content.

Comment below———Please.

Thanks!

Popularity: 78% [?]

On Friday night at the Matchbox Twenty, Alanis Morissette concert here in Reno, I was reminded that you can network virtually anyplace.

At this show, I met a successful online entrepreneur from the Sacramento area. Sacramento is about 2 hours from Reno, and many people come here for shows, skiing and gambling, so it was no surprise that he’d come out for the weekend to play.

What did surprise me was his line of “work”. He sells a very specialized line of niche products online and by phone. From what I understand, he dominates this particular niche and has at least two people employed to handle the phones. Knowing that someone is doing well in such a seemingly tiny market was truly eye opening.

I spoke with him about his background online, and he gave me some great ideas to use on one of my non-Internet Business projects. We swapped email, and will keep in touch.

Since Reno is a tourist destination, it’s very common for people who are out for the evening to ask each other where you are from. But you can do this anyplace. You don’t have to wait for an Internet Marketing PitchfestSeminar to find people to connect with. Some of the best ideas come from people outside of the market you are in, since they can see things from a new angle. It’s a great win-win situation!

There are a virtually unlimited number of places, online and off, where you can network with people. All you have to do is put yourself out there and strike up a conversation. Here are just a few ideas to get you started…

• Concerts, shows, movies
• Blogs, forums (private ones tend to be much better), membership sites
• Restaurants, bars, cafeterias
• Social and service clubs (Rotary, Toastmasters, S.C.O.R.E., etc)
• Online social networking sites like StumbleUpon, Squidoo, and many others
• Stores. Especially ones you visit frequently
• Amusement parks, Golf courses, Bowling Alleys, The Zoo…
• Classes and schools/colleges
• —your turn—

It may not always be a good idea to specifically go out to and look for people to talk to, but if the situation arises, why not see what happens? You could end up with a new venture partner, an idea, or a good laugh. Hopefully you’ll be able to contribute to them as well.

If you feel stuck starting a conversation, head to Amazon.com and search for “conversation” and see where it takes you. There are hundreds of books, on starting conversations, meeting people, and networking. The more you do it, the easier it will be. I’ve talked to interesting and helpful people in all sorts of places, tourist areas or not.

You can start by introducing yourself here. Leave a comment to this post, and be sure to link to your blog or website! Commenting and participating on other peoples blog sites is a great way to meet people online. It also will have a dramatic effect on traffic to your site.

Popularity: 93% [?]

Set specific, measurable expectations before proceeding.

It’s a simple concept. It’s easy to follow. So, why this post?

Because it’s exceedingly rare in practice. Oh… and it could mean the difference between success and failure.

People tend to follow the path of least resistance. Me included. Yet, with some quick adjustments, we could be making progress in leaps and bounds, instead of spits and sputters. All you have to do is clarify your expectations before doing something.

This is basically the Law of Attraction on a smaller, but exceptionally important scale.

An example of what I’m talking about…

You just got a great course on Internet Marketing. It has all the promise of taking you away from your day job and allowing you to earn a living from your home office. The first thing you do is open it up, and read interesting sections as you find them. You’re motivated and feeling good. Unfortunately, you do the same thing the next day. Maybe feeling a little less motivated and frustrated that your “study” hasn’t produced any results. This continues, with a few false starts at using the information, until you finally feel that you were ripped off, and cheated by the author.

Truth is, the product may actually contain all the promises that were made on the sales letter. It may truly unlock the “secrets” to wealth and happiness for you and your family. The problem is that you wanted a magic bullet and didn’t have a plan for success.

If your expectations for the course are something like “Learn how to make a fortune online”, then you are sure to fail. It’s like hailing a cab and asking the driver to take you home. Unless you tell him exactly where you live, you won’t get there. Vague goals and directions just don’t work.

On the other hand, if you set precise goals before you first begin the course, you may just hit pay dirt. What if you set your intention to make your first $100 online within a month using the information in the course. Then for each lesson you take notes, and act on the material presented. You set up your blog, website or email autoresponder. If you have questions, you find examples of the techniques in action (from the author perhaps), and dig for the answers. Trust me, you’ll learn a lot more from taking action on something than just reading about it.

After a week you’ll have made considerable progress, and not only feel motivated, but will have actually accomplished much more than ever before. If you can get to $100, you can get to $200, and as you reach each target it will become easier.

Making a bunch of mini expectations/goals has an exponential effect on your overall progress.

You can visualize this in many ways. For instance, take a staircase. If you want to get to the second floor, you’ll need to use it. One or two steps at a time. You couldn’t jump straight to any other floor above you. Your expectation is to move gradually up the stairs until you arrive at the top. If you try to jump in one bound and just “arrive”, you won’t make it.

One more very important point. The order in which you do something is as important as the setting your goals, and direction. You simply can’t start with the chapter on building traffic to your site if you haven’t even built your site yet. You must do things in an order that has a chance of working. Can you climb the stairs by starting on the 10th step, then the 3rd and then the 15th? No, you start at the bottom, and work your way up in an order that makes sense.

Where else does this work? Everywhere!

• When surfing the net (uhhh… I mean when doing “research” on the net–you know…)
• When attending a seminar (don’t let it be mindless entertainment)
• When dating (don’t skip ahead to the marriage proposal!)
• When taking a trip (don’t get lost)
• When performing a function at work
• When Training your pet
• When learning a musical instrument
• <your goals here>

Terry Dean’s post on 8 Steps to Create Your Internet Business is an excellent example of this concept, and was the largely responsible for the idea behind this post.

Now, how will you put this to use? What mind games can you come up with to help? Please share in the comments below.

Popularity: 100% [?]

I’ve been wondering about this for a while, and finally decided to try a few things.

If you have a web site, and are working at ranking well for a certain keyword, you may not know what page you really show up in Google for one simple reason:

You’re logged into your google account when you make the search (or have Google Toolbar)

Yep, that’s it. Now, I’ve finally verified it in a non-internet marketing related niche. Let me explain so you can try some things on your own.

As far as I know, this only applies to Google, and for those with a Google tool bar or a Google account that they are usually logged in to. Who knows, it might apply to other search engines are well.

I was looking for where this niche site ranked on a specific 2 word phrase. One day the results would show #15 (second page), the next it would be #9 or 10 (first page). Since no changes were made on to the site, and it seemed to bounce around at will, I initially chalked it up to changes the competitors were making to their sites, or a Google change.

Still, after a few weeks, it got me wondering just why this was happening.

I seemed to remember that Google wants to “help” the searcher by using past searches and site visits as an aid in coming up with the best possible results for all new searches. If you have an Amazon account, you’ll be very familiar with all of the little tricks that they use to give you recommendations based on past searches, and purchases there. This is the same thing, but done by your search engine of choice!

So, I did the search in my normal Firefox browser. It came up at #9. I was logged into my Google account for this search.

Next I went to Internet Explorer, which I only use as a cookie and settings-free browser to perform certain tests on. I entered the same search, and the target site showed as #15 (page 2). I was not logged in to any account, and cookies were cleared.

I went back to my Firefox browser, and logged out of my Google account. Entered the search phrase, and came back as #15, just like in Internet Explorer.

Experiment over for now.

My guess is that since I’d frequently visited the site(s) I was trying to rank, it moved the results up when I searched on a phrase that the site was included in–much like Amazon will start finding reasons to show new/different results as you browse or shop.

Lesson learned:

You may not know exactly what page your site will show up for any given keyword, for any given individual. Their results may be based on past searches, just like yours are when logged into your Google account.

What can you do about it? I suspect: not much, other than to keep generating good, related content to inch ever higher in the overall rankings.

Just remember not to spout off about your page one ranking without at least checking whether you get the same results after logging off of your account. Even then, you don’t know if they’re logged in and getting entirely different results as well.

Thoughts on this? Comment below…

Popularity: 51% [?]