Successful Blog

Let your competition focus on you

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Rosemary O’Neill

Focus on the Path Ahead

The Summer Olympics are coming up, and I for one will be perched in front of my TV and iPhone app (yes, there’s an app for that) watching the proceedings.

I draw inspiration and courage from these athletes who dedicate their entire lives to achieving greatness in their event. There are so many lessons to take away, but one seems to jump out.

Have you ever noticed that the runners, swimmers, and other races NEVER look behind them during the race?

They focus their entire attention. Their entire being. Everything is focused on the path ahead, the swim lane ahead. The world may be on its feet screaming “he’s coming up behind you” and the sprinter is in a zone of silence.

Let your competition focus on you

The next time you’re tempted to spend time worrying about the competition, think like an Olympic swimmer. Stretch, jump, and swim like hell toward the other side.

Let them worry about you.

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 the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

How to Gain the Best Rewards from Reward Credit Cards

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Ann Wilson

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Which Reward Card?

Gaining financial stability using credit card is no joke—especially if you’re using the best reward credit card for you. Unfortunately a lot of people complain that this caused their financial loss and inability to save money for their future. What they don’t realize is they got themselves into such due to their own misuse of credit cards.

Reward credit cards are not enemies but friends if used wisely. You have to, however, find which reward card fits you best. This means you need to analyze your expenditures from the most important to the least important (whether it’s for personal use or professional use). You want to get the best reward credit card that really meets most of your purchasing needs such as travel tickets, hotel reservations, or groceries for your business.

If your work requires you to travel a lot, the best reward credit card to choose is one that features travel mileage advantage such as discounts on plane fare or hotel accommodation. There are even instances where in if you travel a lot you get reward points which you may exchange for a certain privilege such as free grocery items or free trip for the whole family.

Another example is if you love to shop around for home appliances or items for your family’s needs. The best reward credit card in this situation is one that features cash rebates. You can check on which credit card offers rebates on items which you most likely buy as a need.

How to Gain the Best Rewards from Reward Credit Cards

While these reward credit cards are indeed helpful in your buying needs, you need to discipline your spending ways. Here are a few tips on how to use your credit card wisely and control your purchasing power with it.

1. Set your goals. You need to have a long term goal such as your child’s college educational fund or a new house or car. After setting a long term goal, better cut it down into smaller ones by listing down how you can have it. This will help you control your spending on least important items which in turn will lead you to use your credit card on more important items.

2. Talk to your family about your plans. This way they too can help you save especially if you’re helping out with expenses. With spouses doing this will give both an understanding on what expenditures can be paid with a credit card and those that can be met by paying cash.

3. Strategize your splurging. Of course there are times you need to reward yourself. However this doesn’t mean you can splurge away. You still need to consider if you can meet it. Have a separate budget for this splurging activity (sort of a limit). After you’ve spent it then spend no more. You can even go to shops which can help you earn reward points or use your existing credit reward points to help you save more.

4. Check your expenditure list at the end of every month. Meet with your family or your spouse about it and see if you need to cut something out of the list.

You can really save more with the best reward credit card. All you need to do is prioritize on the important things and see which purchases can help you gain more financial benefits in the future.

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Author’s Bio:
Ann Wilson writes about reward credit cards and other credit card information at RewardCreditCardSite.com. she is also the author of ”Which of the Best Credit Card Offers Will Fit Your Lifestyle?”

Thank you, Ann! Thanks for the straight story.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

How to Manage Your Business Reputation After the Google Penguin Update

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Steve Albright

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Online Reputation Management in the Penguin Update Aftermath

Whether you have an online or offline small business Google’s latest algorithm update, innocuously named Penguin, is something you should be paying attention to. One unintended consequence of this update is the wide open path it cleared for businesses to take control of their online reputation.

If you’re unfamiliar with this latest algorithm change, the Penguin update’s main target was sites manipulating search engine results to improve rankings. Most hit were sites that used large amounts of low quality inbound links with keyword rich anchor texts to rank for desired search terms. Another aspect to this update is the over “SEO’d” penalty that slapped sites with pages that were clearly created for SEO benefits and not users. The combined effect of these updates has been serious upheaval in Google’s search results.

So what does this mean for you and your Online business?

The benefit for your ethical business is that no matter what niche you’re in Google has most likely laid waste to a good portion of your competition.

Most obviously in the arena of branded search terms; it’s very difficult to rank for competitors’ branded terms without using some form of search engine manipulation. This means all those pesky sites siphoning off traffic from your brand name, product line, niche, etc were most likely penalized.

Another effect of the update is a great opportunity to take control of your business’s online reputation.

Here’s how …

How to Manage Your Business Reputation After the Google Penguin Update

If you’ve run a business for any amount of time you know that no matter how hard you try there’s always going to be that one person who’s not pleased with your service/product. Despite your best efforts at customer service an event like this seems inevitable.

While many small business owners disregard these rare occasions as a standard cost of doing business, it becomes a problem when complainers take their complaints online. And plenty of sites are ready and willing to post their grievances.

This becomes an even bigger problem when review sites start ranking alongside, or even above, your site. This is why you absolutely must take advantage of this window that Google has provided.
Now is the time to go on the attack and take over your niche and brand.

Meet your potential critics head on.

Here’s what to do:

  • Create pages on your site that address any impending problems your customers may have. Use Google Analytics and other search tools to dial in on specific terms that people are searching online i.e., brand name + reviews, complaints, refunds, how to cancel, support, and so on.
  • Write blog posts and feature articles about your commitment to service that intercept your customers before they start looking for these answers elsewhere, not only is that good customer service but it allows you to control the online narrative for your business.
  • Be proactive about solving problems. Instead of saying that we’re a company that doesn’t care about bad press or providing help to our customers it says we’re a tech savvy business that has taken preemptive care to make sure the customer has easy access to resources for all their pre/post purchase needs.
  • Create a feedback channel. It’s better to create an immediate channel for dialogue and resolution than being forced to address negative reviews publicly after they’ve already been posted.

This is also the best way to cleanup or prevent unfavorable first page search results. You can see that Google is on board, as most brand name search results are dominated by the companies own web properties, news mentions, and profiles. Simply put, if you have the right content on your site Google is more likely to show it first over 3rd party sites.

Ultimately, while you may not be able to purge the internet of unfavorable posts you can certainly control a large portion of your branded online real-estate just by having the right content.

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Author’s Bio:
Steve Albright is the editor of Reviewopedia.com, a product review site that helps online shoppers make smarter choices everyday.

Thank you, Steve. Online reputation is so important!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

What Motivates You?

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NewRichStrategies: Motivation

What Motivates Me?

Whether you go into an office on a daily basis, work from your home or travel the country and maybe even the world to do business, what motivates you?

It is a question that should be relatively easy to answer, yet many people probably scratch their heads when it comes to answering it. Really, folks, it should not be that hard to answer.

Although I am certainly not a motivational speaker by trade, I know what motivates me when I get up in the morning. Among the things:

  • Wanting to be productive;
  • Wanting to do more than I did the previous day;
  • Wanting to further my career opportunities;
  • Wanting to contribute in some means no matter how small to society;
  • Wanting to make sure that I take advantage of each and every day.

Now that I mentioned what motivates me, do any of those sentiments resonate with you?

What Motivates You?

In all honesty, all of us have days where we feel like we have to trudge through the day just to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some days our motivation level is about as small as it can be. In those cases, how do you make it a productive day?

While this may sound a little corny to some folks, I always remind myself of how life could be so different, albeit not in a good way.

As I watch the fires on TV this week in Colorado, my heart goes out to those residents. I survived a pair of fires in the last decade here in Southern California, so I know very well what they are going through.

One woman being interviewed on TV was asked how she and her family are getting through this, wondering if they will have a home to go back to. Her simple response was that they had each other and their animals, so
they could rebuild their personal lives and their business if necessary. As she put, you have to keep going and appreciate each and every moment you have.

As you sit at work today or are traveling for a business meeting, keep in mind what this woman and tons of other people go through on a daily basis.

Everyone is tested in life, sometimes on what seems like an almost regular basis.

The key to succeeding is finding the motivation to overcome adversity, be it in your professional or personal life.

I’ll ask again…. what motivates you?

Author’s Bio:
Dave Thomas has more than 20 years’ experience as a writer, covering marketing, SEO, press releases, social media and more. You’ll find Dave at BeeMoreSocial

4 Steps to Declare Your Independence

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INDEPENDENCE


Yes that’s me.

My birthday is July 3. The country’s birthday is July 4. I have a cousin who’s 361 days younger than me.
Those three facts added up to personal birthday celebrations that were often combined and moved around because of the holiday and the idea that one party — usually a picnic — meant less disruption for everyone.

As I got older, I reached adult birthday status much earlier than my much older brothers — whose birthdays fell on days that had no competition with other events. They got their private parties well through high school. My birthday more quickly became a piece of another event rather than my own day. We’d go see fireworks or a parade to celebrate, but those events were bigger than my birthday.

4 Steps to Declare Your Independence

The fact that I was born on the Eve of Independence Day was never lost on me. I was already saying “My birthday is the day before 4th of July.” when I was kindergarten. My birthday couldn’t compete. I was never at the center of my birthday. Being a painfully shy child, I have to think that worked for me.

But there comes a time in any life that we have to claim our own independence. We have to learn how to make ourselves the “center of our own life’s plan,” or we’ll end up spending the time of our life without actually living it. Here are 4 steps to declare your independence right now.

  • Decide who you are. At first it seems natural to let the people around us define us. Our family teaches us how to be social. Our teachers and peer groups tell us what they see. The universe is larger than the thoughts and images those groups put in our minds. Our potential is too. Don’t rely on the observations of the world to tell you who you are. They haven’t lived your life. The world can’t get together to take a vote on who you are. Choose your own best true story. Decide and show them instead.
  • Be that person now. Don’t try to be that person. Don’t work toward some future date when you’ll know you are. None of us have enough future to waste on getting there. You know what you value. You know who you admire. Define yourself with those and be what you’ve defined immediately.
  • Surround yourself with people who recognize you. Use your values to choose the people you trust. Shared values reinforce themselves. Time is unrenewable. Spend your time with people who make you feel proud to be who you are. You’ll know them because you’ll never have to focus on what you want or need. Being with people who see, hear, and understand us, frees us from having to highlight, underscore, or prove who we are. It move us away from living through self-consciousness, self-centeredness, and a conflict of selfishness with selflessness to consciousness, centeredness, and a balanced view of ourselves.
  • Own the good things about you. Influence yourself. Get to know and value what others see and value in you. That’s how you’ll grow what’s good in you naturally. You can’t share or give what you don’t truly own.

Somehow we have it backwards. We live as if at the end of our life, we’ll know …

who we are.
what we’ll do.
where we will end up.

Decide those things first. — The Problem Isn’t Not Knowing What You Want to Do …

Before I found my own independence, sharing my day always felt a bit disappointing. Hearing folks say, “enjoy YOUR day,” didn’t resonate with me. Yet once I decided who I am, began to live that, focused on people who truly see me, and learned from them what I offer, sharing my day — any day, any amount of time — became as easy as breathing. That’s how I learned to live the moments of my life.

Once I declared my independence, I learned how irresistible the people in my life truly are.

Have you declared your independence?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related: Top 10 Ways to Start Living Your Life

5 Must-Attend Events to Understand Online Business Growth

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Ann Smarty

Understanding Online Business

If guiding your business startup to the point that you’re breaking even is your first major hurdle, the second is focusing on sustaining that growth in order to turn your business into the profitable machine that you’ve always known it would be.

Just like the first leg of your entrepreneurial journey, the general idea of growing an online business covers many complicated fields and endeavors, often leaving you in the dark as to the best possible step to take in a given situation.

If getting bigger is what you’re about then you’ll need all the help you can get; check out these five must-attend events to understand online business growth:

1. SOBCon NW 2012

Business owners of all kinds are invited to attend this year’s SOBCon event, a conference that offers education and inspiration to startups, entrepreneurs and small business owners. Starting off with its theme of Starting Up Strategically, SOBCon NW 2012 will offer six unique “Mastermind Models” that focus on the key elements of a successful startup alongside interviews and talks with those in the know and panel discussions to allow you to benefit from others in your niche.

For those focused on entrepreneurial non-profit efforts, Give Back Sunday is set aside to provide you with the kind of information and insight that you need in order to achieve the best possible results with your charitable efforts.

When & Where: SOBCon NW 2012 is set to be held at the Urban Studio in Portland, Oregon, from September 28-30, 2012. Live chat with Liz if you have any venue and location questions.

2. The Conference Board – The New/Next CMO: What it Takes to Win in Marketing

Startup success and business growth depend, in the end, on marketing and marketing alone; buyers rule. With this fact in mind, it’s easy to understand exactly why a strong mind for advertising is a necessity, especially in today’s crowded business landscape, and The New/Next CMO conference offers marketing professionals big and small the tools and ideas they need to help their business to excel.

This event will help you to better spot and leverage marketing opportunities in your business, focusing on how to achieve real world results while giving you the take-home ideas and inspiration you need sell your brand to the world.

When & Where: The Conference Board Conference Center in NewYorkCity will play host to The New/Next CMO conference on November 8, 2012. There’s no official venue information at the event site but you can book a hotel using NewYorkHotels.org

3. Pivot Conference 2012

Speaking of marketing, Pivot Conference 2012 is another great event for brand builders and marketers, helping online entrepreneurs to gracefully tackle the many challenges and risks to be found in the rapidly evolving world of social media. Attended by some of the biggest and most successful names in social marketing and engineering, you’ll learn how to take advantage of emerging platforms in effective ways while never losing focus on the good old-fashioned art of connecting on a meaningful level with your customers.

When & Where: NewYork, NewYork is the city that Pivot Conference 2012, to be held on October 15-16, 2012, calls home, offerings attendees an exciting travel opportunity in itself! Here’s the official hotel and travel information.

4. Ignition: Future of Digital

In a world quickly moving towards paperless money, digitized business and technology-fuelled everything, digital media professionals need to stay educated in order to stay on top of their game! Ignition: Future of Digital promises to give attendees the information they need to stay ahead of the competition, no the matter the niche in question.

When & Where: New York City continues to hold the spotlight as it hosts the Ignite conference on November 27, 2012 at the Time Warner Center. More location information and registration is available here.

5. Business Growth Conference

Visit a city on the cutting edge of technology and digital media and rub shoulders with the best and brightest minds available by visiting the Business Growth Conference, a full day of professional development activities designed to help any business owner to grow surely and steadily.

When & Where: A visit to beautiful San Francisco, California on October 17, 2012 will be in order if you’d like to attend the Business Growth Conference. More info on the event location is available here. Union Square also boasts many other hotels.

Are you visiting any of the above? Please let us know in the comments!

Author’s Bio: Ann Smarty is a blogger and guest blogger with 6 years experience. She is a control freak and she loves when she is busy, so her hands are always full. One of her largest projects is My Blog Guest, the free community of guest authors and blog owners who preach the “high-quality” approach to guest blogging. Follow Ann on Twitter at @seosmarty and Google Plus


Thank you, Ann! Great information, Great guest post! Great birthday present to include SOBCon among them! 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss