Successful Blog

How Do You Look in High Definition?

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cooltext443809558_authenticityOne of my favorite contemporary artists is Chuck Close. He is famous for photo-realist portraits that will blow your mind. When you’re standing at the right distance, you’d swear it was a photograph, but if you come closer, you can see that the pixels are all made up of tiny blobs with a dot in the center.

Your business must be accessible and recognizable from a distance and from close up, so you also need to pay attention to the details.

If your audience is viewing you from far away (e.g., via your social outpost on Twitter), do they clearly see the same message as close up (on your own website)? The tools and trappings may be different, but the impression should be the same.

Here’s a low-tech exercise that gives you a quick look at your brand consistency:

Go to each online location where your brand lives (Facebook page, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn corporate page, main website, etc.), and literally print out the pages. Tape them to a wall.

Grab a cup of coffee, and stand back. Does it look focused, or does it look like fingerpainting?

Assess which pages don’t contribute to the impression you want to build, and tweak them until they fit. Remember that cohesiveness doesn’t mean sameness!

Consider your messaging from several perspectives, and the audience will recognize your artistry regardless of the medium.

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O” Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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Five Fabrications which are Common in Internet Marketing and Weight Loss Programs

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Internet is a Godsend for people looking for any kind of information. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration if we say that, there’s not a single topic which is not extensively covered at the World Wide Web. If you are good at googling, you can get a hang of almost any skill or subject under the sun. But the goodness ends here, and the list of downsides start … the first and the foremost being the amount of gibberish getting published on the Internet. It’s easy for the knowledgeable guys to distinguish claptrap from the authentic information, but someone with no prior knowledge or experience of the subject is bound to be vulnerable, no wonder many end up going astray and choosing the wrong track, especially when they are seeing all sorts of promises and huge claims coming from the so-called experts.

Acting upon any of this advice and misleading information can have some adverse effects on one’s health (if we are talking about a weight loss program) or online venture (in case of SEO methods). Being an SEO expert and someone who has studied weight loss and fitness topics quite extensively, I’d like to point out five glaring ambiguities that you must remember, to avoid wasting your time, resources, and even health by following up on some rubbish advice.

Overnight results:

When you see some weight loss plan promising results that seem too good to be true, you should know that they are actually too good to be true, same is the case with SEO methods (or services) claiming to take your website to the top in a matter of days. Both SEO and weight loss regimes will take quite some time before they start giving results, you might start seeing some results after some time, but you wouldn’t be reaching the ultimate destinations anytime soon, and anybody claiming to have a recipe for that, is most probably a scam.

Big rewards with little or no efforts:

Again, if little to no effort was needed, everybody would be walking with a perfectly tuned up body, or in case of SEO, everybody’s website would be ranking on top of the Google’s result. The reason we see only one website managing to get on the top amidst millions of results is because it has toiled harder than the remaining ones. There’s no chance that you can get to the top without putting your best foot forward, so when you look at someone standing on victory stand; spare some thought for years and years of training, and know that you will have to put up that much effort to get anywhere near the top.

Secret Methods:

Internet is full of so-called experts selling a “secret” method for losing excessive pounds in a couple of weeks, or beating your competition at SERPs in a jiffy. Remember, if anybody really has a method for that, he/she wouldn’t be selling it for peanuts; instead they’ll be making thousands by ranking on the top for some of those highly lucrative keywords. If they are really that smart, they’d be earning big, instead of wasting time in earning petty amounts?

Cheap Ones:

Do you know how those celebrities manage to get remarkable results when it comes to weight loss (or vice versa)? Not to take anything away, but that is partially because they have got some of the world’s best trainers and physicians working for them, and same goes for the websites managing to rank on the top for entire groups of highly searched keywords, while others struggle to rank for just one? That is because they have some of the best minds in the SEO eternity working for them. Needless to say, you can’t employ best experts or tools without spending hefty amounts. So you shouldn’t be looking for cheap ways when you are looking for real results. It’s not that extravagant spending can itself guarantee good results, but you must avoid staying tight-fisted if you are looking for sizable results.

Success Stories:

Probably the easiest way to lure wannabe entrepreneurs or overweight people is providing them with a “success story”. You might have read hundreds and thousands of stories about a guy earning thousands from their website on which they haven’t spent a lot of time or resources, or some lady losing 20 lbs. in a matter of weeks. Many succumb to these success stories and feel absolutely dejected when it doesn’t pay off. Remember that a big majority of these stories are made up, and a very few which are true can easily be a fluke, and you won’t necessarily be getting so lucky, the idea is to keep your expectations realistic instead of getting influenced by these success stories.

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Author’s Bio:

Rahil is a fitness freak, as well as an Internet Marketing expert. At his coupon code website, you can avail coupons for Bistro md and weightwatchers voucher, and a lot more discounts and vouchers in addition to weight watchers or Bistro md.

The Five Traits that Motivate People to Support a Strategic Decision

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Every Great Motivator Has Its Failing

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As I look back on every SOBCon event, a continuous them is …

Decide and Do.

Decide literally means to kill off all other options. But how do we choose the motivating strategic decision — the one that not only moves us forward, but also enlists, engages, and motivates people to join us in executing that decision?

Strategic decisions are built on understanding position and predicting.
On the most quantitative level, people are part of both position and prediction.
Yet too often we make decisions without considers how the decisions might impact the people who we want to keep closest to us.

How Do You Make a Strategic Decision that Moves People to Action?

Too often when we make decisions — especially important and urgent ones — our thinking narrows too tightly. We lose sight of the people and focus only on facts and information. We see the problem, but lose sight of the people who will help us achieve it.

Our decision is only an half strength if we don’t consider the people who execute it. Each of those people brings his or her thinking, traits, perceptions, and responses with individual goals and personal intentions.

How does a leader motivate people to support a strategic decision? A leader looks to the characteristics of the people he or she wants to move to action. Motivation is 100% about aligning goals — being mission critical to THEIR mission. Once we set our course and direction, the next strong step is to consider what fuels the people who will fuel our mission. The key to moving people to action is in how we communicate that decision. It’s important to reach out to the higher values that drive the members of the community.

The Five Traits that Motivate People to Support a Strategic Decision

The people we try to motivate will have have these five traits in differing levels. Addressing these traits when you communicate a strategic decision will increase your success in motivating people to move to action. Before you announce your decision, review these five questions.

  • Dedication: Do they care? Commitment and caring are deep strong motivators. Know which people care and invest their commitment deeply for the goal. People of commitment dedicate themselves to reaching the goal. Tie the goal to commitment and you’re likely to capture their deep and unswerving investment in the mission. .
  • Intelligence: Do they learn well and understand and deeply? Sharing the sound thinking that drives a decision will motivate the community members who value deep thinking. Don’t be stingy with communication.
  • Courage: Do they respond well to change and in times of uncertainty? Acknowledging the risk and the reward of the decision allows the brave ones to step forward to protect and serve and to know how to shore up the possible vulnerabilities.
  • Discipline: Do they value the systems and the rules? Chaos is uncomfortable and change can be confusing. A few clear rules of what will guide the strategy to success can enlist those who most need clarity of action.
  • Trustworthiness: Do they trust your decisions without explanation? Explain your thinking anyway. Trustworthiness is demands that you value their trust and respect it, especially in times of change.

You’ll know you’ve communicated well if your community starts selling you on the validity of your decision as they move to action.
you form strategy and make decisions that help you enlist the right team of people to carry out your life mission.

What do you consider when you want to motivate people to action?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

What Could You Achieve If You Had a Dream Team Working On Your Business?

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TIME and 144 People Looking in the Same Direction

TIME.

People say time is money.
People wish for time to focus, expand, and true up their business.
People dream of time to fortify the infrastructure and prioritize with wisdom.
Yet, time is the great equalizer.
If Time is money, it’s because TIME is only resource we can’t get more of.
We can’t make more. We can’t go back and re-live it.
And in that way, how we spend our time is proof of our commitment.

What Could You Achieve On a Working Retreat to Fuel Your Business?

Suppose you could take a weekend retreat away from the noise of running your business. What could you do with a weekend devoted to articulating your most attractive mission, identifying the exact strengths of your unique position, analyzing how to leverage current conditions to support your growth, applying command decisions to raise your returns and attract ideal customers, and analyze the networks and systems that will create your strongest communities,

It’s not just a supposition. We do it every spring at SOBCon.

A few folks have asked me to outline what they’ll find when they walk into the room that is SOBCon. The first thing you’ll see is 36″x72″ rectangular meeting tables with executive chairs around them surrounded by a tenth floor view of Michigan Avenue. Then you’ll see lots of people smiling with the excitement of knowing what’s coming, because it’s something special to share a weekend …

  • to focus entirely on your business strategy and action plan
  • to work with the support of a mastermind team who is serious about doing the same thing.
  • to get quality time to interact with the best names in online business
  • to hear connected strategic content AND get twice as much time to immediately work out how apply it
  • to share ideas with sponsors who share your commitment
  • in a room that only holds 144 people — all focused in the same direction — growing successful businesses
  • with highest efficiency because it’s free of commercials and the food and the wireless provided are outstanding.

It’s a one-of-kind chance to grow your business exponentially and explode your network.
But don’t believe me, ask the folks who’ve been there. You’ll find them at the #SOBCon hashtag on Twitter. Check the SOBCon program.

A weekend with Chris Brogan, Tim Sanders
Angel Djambazov, Liz Strauss, Terry Starbucker, Rick Turoczy, Carol Roth Gary W Goldstein, Laura “@Pistachio” Fitton, Steve Farber, Rick Calvert, Charlie Gilkey, Kathy Burdick, Les McKeown, Shashi Bellamkonda and so many others. — 144 person dream team.

Are you serious about succeeding?
Are you ready to start Creating and Leveraging Opportunity?

SuccessfulOnlineBusinessCon

What could you do if you had a dream team working with you on your business?
We’re all coming for the same reasons — the lasting returns of deep networking relationships with other successful businesses.

Hope to see you there!
Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon NOW!!

You’ll be enjoying the return for years. SOBCon is sponsored this year by GotoMeeting, DexOne, TheSafeCig, GMC, Mojaba, and … ? We love our sponsors.

Start in the Middle on Your Report, Blog Post or Presentation

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Put a Sock in It, Julie!

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Who hasn’t heard Julie Andrews sing it?

Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.
When you read you begin with ABC, When you sing you begin with do-re-me.

–the character, Maria, sung by Julie Andrews in
The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein

Put a sock in it, Julie.

Starting in the beginning might work well when you know the story, but when you’re first forming your ideas it can really screw you up. By the time you figure out that clever beginning you might forget the what the story was going to be about. After all, when planning a special occasion, it’s not usually the best idea to start with what you’ll say on the invitation … we have to know what the gathering will be about.

Turn off, Julie Andrews and the tape recordings in your head that tell you what you’re supposed to do. They just get in the way. Unique problems require unique solutions.

Beginnings Have a Part to Play in Setting Up Your Conversation

Who cares about how the fire began if you need to get out of the building NOW? Get the facts and worry about how it started later.

When you’re creating something new, problem solving, or envisioning what could be, information is nebulous and coming from many directions. The challenge is to order it and give form–not to find the beginning. Here are some tips on how to get your idea going before the blank screen and the beginning knock you down.

  1. Write your idea as a compelling question you want to answer. Then write the answer as – bullet points.
  2. Describe an action that you’re looking to make happen.
  3. Write the list of important points that you want to share.
  4. Outline the steps of the how-to.
  5. Lay out the key point of the product review.

If you do one of those first, you’ll know what it is that you want to say.

Then, you can consider one of two things key to context:

  1. Connecting to prior knowledge: What will most of your audience already know about what you’re going to tell them? How can you connect that to what you’re adding to the conversation? That connection is the place to start.
  2. Building background: It might be a fair assessment that most of your audience won’t have experience with what you’re about to tell them. What information or analogy will give them a setting in which to place your conversation? Make that setting the beginning.

Now the beginning is an integral part to play in setting up your most important statements.

Do you ever start in the middle when you’re preparing a report, a blog post, or a presentation?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Turn Procrastination into Business Building Ideas

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You Know You’re Procrastinating When . . .

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. . . cleaning the refrigerator takes on a new and miraculous sense of urgency with a heavenly glow.

Go ahead give in and do it, but don’t lose to procrastination. Turn that refrigerator chore into an exploration for ideas. Here are three things you might think about.

  • What is your customer experience of the products that you are tossing out? Can you use those experiences to seed an article for your blog?
  • Refrigerators are filled with products. How do the companies who make those products promote them? Can you rethink any of their ideas into ways to promote your business or your blog?
  • Is there a brand in there you are attached to? What do you value about that brand? Can you put those thoughts and feelings into words? How can you use that brand value you feel to strengthen your personal brand and the experience people have when they meet you?

Procrastination just became an idea session, and on top of that you’ve cleaned your refrigerator! That’s productivity where you could have been doing what I’ve done — standing in front of an open refrigerator door thinking about how the light goes on and off.

Bet you can think of more ideas to find inside of that Big Box. How about sharing some with us?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!