Successful Blog

Talk About Your Goals: Goal Setting Success

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Andy Crestodina

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Talk About Your Goals

Research shows that writing down a goal increases the chance of achieving that goal. The same research shows that talking about your goals makes success even more likely.

When Dr. Gail Matthews conducted a study of 149 participants, she found that committing to your goals in writing has a positive impact on your chance of success.

Here’s how the study worked

149 subjects were divided into several groups and each subject was asked to select a goal. Some were asked to simply think about their goal. Other groups were asked to write their goal. A final group committed to their goals in writing and shared that commitment and progress reports with a supportive friend. At the end of four weeks, each subject reported the extent of their goal setting success. (see the research summary here)

Sharing with friends makes goal setting successful

When goals are written and the commitment and progress updates are shared with a supportive friend, the likelihood of achieving the goal was the highest. Why? It may be fear of disappointing them. It may be a fear of embarrassment. Or it might be that encouraging boost of confidence that only a friend can give.

“There was support for the role of public commitment: those who sent their commitments to a friend accomplished significantly more than those who wrote action commitments
or did not write their goals.”
– Dr. Gail Matthews

Find an Accountabili-Buddy

Find someone supportive whom you respect. Someone you don’t want to disappoint. Schedule a regular time to meet or talk on the phone. Tell them your goals and ask them to hold you accountable. Or make it mutual and work on goal setting and success together.

Personally, I hope to one day be an author, so I found a friend who has published books. I meet him twice a month at 8am. We drink coffee and share progress. He holds me accountable and I hate to disappoint him!

What are your goals?

You are moments away from leveraging this simple but powerful principle. Right now, you can state your goals to the world. Just tell us your goals with a comment below. But be careful! We may hold you to it…

Author’s Bio:
Andy Crestodina is the Strategic Director of Orbit Media Studios, a web design company in Chicago. You can tell Andy your goals on Google+ and on Twitter.

Teens, the Financial Crisis, and Lack of Summer Jobs

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Ideas and Infographics

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Mihaela “Mig” Lica

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Signs Of Our Times & Not So Good Trends

You are all feeling it, aren’t you? The weight of the financial crisis, creeping in past even the most positive attitudes, this has become as prevalent (almost) as the morning alarm clock. Politicians talk of recovery, so do bankers and Wall Street titans, every news day some new hope of a full recovery hits our sensibilities. And then the next morning arrives.

Indicators abound to tell us the ups and downs of our current existence. But the real telling details arrive in the form of news friends and relatives are having a tough time. Out of work, homes foreclosed, blah, blah, blah, are you immune yet? The infographic below focuses on some more news from the negative side. For those who have teens headed into the workplace this Summer, be grateful, many don’t get the chance. Check out this economic indicator.

Cruel Summer - Where the Jobs are this Summer Infographic
Via: Bolt Insurance

This Summer will be “cruel” indeed for a lot of young and older Americans. Just because things seem to be holding together, this does not mean we should lose sight of our problems, the problems of our neighbors. Infographics, as you can see, are a great way to solidify and remember information. You already knew the neighbor’s teenager was having a tough time finding work, now you know he or she is not alone. And even if you want only good news in your day, it’s a good idea to act on this bit of bad, just as a start. Please share your good and bad news Summer stories with us.

Author’s Bio:

Author’s Bio:

Mihaela “Mig” Lica founded Pamil Visions in 2005 where she uses her hard won journalistic, SEO and public relations skills toward helping small companies navigate the digital realm with influence and success.

You can find Mig on Twitter as @PamilVisions

Targeting Customers with Your Online Email Marketing Strategy

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Olga Ionel

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Targeting Customers with Your Online Email Marketing Strategy

If you are like most that have a business online, or at least a site for your business, you know just how important online marketing is going to be. Marketing on the web might have some similarities to traditional marketing, but there are enough differences that it takes a new approach. In addition to marketing through content, advertisements, and word of mouth, one of the best options for a business owner today is going to be email marketing.

Using email for online marketing has been around since the advent of email, and it can still be quite effective. However, you have to be careful if you are going to use it, and you have to make sure that do the marketing the right way. Otherwise, you risk alienating and angering the very audience that you are trying to reach.

Why is Email Marketing a Good Idea?

When a customer visits a website, there is no guarantee that he or she is going to buy anything or come back to read more content. Rather than having only one shot with a customer, you should offer an email newsletter signup that is going to let you keep in contact with those customers. This will provide you with the email address that you can keep in your database, and you will be able to provide the subscribers with more content that they can use.

You do not have to offer a newsletter, but it can be a great online marketing tool. People want to feel as though they are getting something when they provide their email address, and this is a good option.

Getting Visitors to Provide Email Addresses

Visitors do not often part with their email addresses. They know all the tricks in the online marketing book by now. They fear that you will sell their email address or that you will send them spam. You have to be very upfront about what you are going to do with the email and what you are going to be emailing to those who provide their email address.

Having a trustworthy site is the first step. You have to have a site with a good reputation, and that has content that the reader finds useful or interesting on the first visit. This is going to make them more likely to provide you with an email address. If you do offer a newsletter, you need to make sure that it is just as valuable as your site. Those who sell products might want to get provide some coupons or discounts in the newsletter, thus adding even more value to it. Perhaps offer an extra 5% off for getting others to sign up for the newsletter.

You can have an opt-in form on your site. It should be easy to integrate a form for email signups with many of the premium wordpress themes available today. If you can’t find a plugin or feature that can accomplish this with the theme, you can always have someone build the form for you. Make sure that you have the form on more than just one location on your site too. While you don’t want to inundate them with the form, you should have it on your homepage, about us page and other key locations on your site. If you sell products, have a form on the checkout page as well.

Using email addresses certainly isn’t the only type of online marketing that you are going to do, but it can be quite helpful. When it comes to online marketing strategies, you want to do everything possible to give your business the best advantages.

What success have you had with using customer email addresses to connect with them?

Author’s Bio:
Olga Ionel is a creative writer at ThemeFuse.com. She is passionate by WordPress, SEO and Blogging. Don’t forget to check out stunning Premium themes for wordpress. (warning: no boring stuff)

Thank you, Olga. Too many of us are overlooking the opportunity that email marketing offers our online business.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Show your Authenticity; Monkey with your Business

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Rosemary O’Neill

“True authenticity is a lack of perfection,” said architect Gil Schafer in the June 2012 issue of Architectural Digest. He was referring to a beautifully designed home, but the same principle applies to the beautifully run business.

The architect mentions, in the same interview, that he loves to include accents that are off-kilter, or “monkeyed with.”
Yes! I say. Exactly.

Show Your Authenticity. Humans Aren’t Perfect

Should a small business owner try to emulate the stilted language of a Fortune 500 on their website? Should an entrepreneur build a carefully crafted facade of social media perfection? No. Humans aren’t wired that way, and we have a hard time relating to businesses that are wired that way.

That doesn’t mean you can ignore the importance of copywriting, or that you can abandon business niceties altogether, and it certainly doesn’t mean you can show up at a presentation in your PJs.

But as a small business owner, you have a golden opportunity to show your human side, to be authentically you, as you conduct business. There’s no 50 page guidance document holding you back. If you screw something up royally, just apologize.

Embrace your lack of perfection. Celebrate it!

How to Be Off-Kilter On Purpose

Some inspirational ideas:

  1. I recently ordered some iPhone lenses that came with a tiny plastic dinosaur in the box, for no apparent reason. Photojojo.com made me smile.
  2. The AppSumo site has a funny, sometimes bizarre sense of humor, and a readily distinguishable “voice.”
  3. A local Seattle promo design shop (the fun folks at B-Bam!) caught my undivided attention last month by sending me a Christopher Walken t-shirt out of the blue.

Are you striving for B-school perfection? Stop it, and release the monkeys! Your customers will thank you for it.

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

Is Your Business Connected to the Right Web Host Provider?

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As a small business owner, having a sizable and sound presence on the Internet can be the difference between an average business and one that is going places.

In order to achieve such a presence, however, one needs to have put together a solid Web site that is free of gaffes, easy to navigate, and offers the consumer something.

Finding the right web hosting provider is not always the easiest thing to do, given you yourself may not be very adept at what you need. If that is the case, even more time and research should be taken so that your choice does not leave you and your Web site down.

When searching for a web hosting provider, keep the following in mind so that you do not go blindly into the search:

* Know the needed capacity – The percentage of storage capacity your business requires will depend on what kind of site you are putting together. If you are constructing an article directory where your required web space will increase rapidly, decide how much the expense will grow for such needs;
* Understand the required bandwidth – Another key factor is to determine what amount of bandwidth your site will most likely need, especially if you figure on providing the public with things like audio, podcasts, streaming video etc. over time;
* Know if you will face a setup fee – As competition among web hosting providers heats up, that should mean savings for your business. That being said, if a web host provider notes it will be charging you a setup charge for its services, shop around;
* Understand the provider’s thoughts on tech support – The idea should always be to locate a hosting provider that is at your service on a 24-hour basis. Given that server issues occur at all hours of the day, don’t settle on a service provider that can’t meet your potential service needs;
* Check out the company’s history – Lastly, do a background check on the service providers you are looking into working with. See if there is any track record of complaints, if their company proves to be financially solvent, and if they have a history of quality service. Issues in any of these three areas should serve as a red flag.

When it comes to finding the right web host provider for your small business, don’t be left disconnected.

Photo credit: http://www.etamhost.com/tag/web-hosting-provider/

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

 

How to Write Powerful Content that Powerfully Connects

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How to blog series

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Chris Nosal

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How To Write Powerful Content

Being able to connect with your customers is one of the most important skills you could possibly learn in both blogging and in business, because your ability to connect with your customers is what translates into dollars, keeps your business running, and adds value to your customers’ lives.

In this blog post I want to detail some simple and easy but very powerful tricks that you can use to really connect with your readers and customers.

How to Really Connect with Readers

Basically, I’m going to show you some psychological “hacks” that you can use to capture people’s attention, and literally captivate them with every word you write (or say).

If you’ve ever watched Steve Jobs give a presentation (such as his presentation on the iPhone in 2007), you’ll notice he does one thing that 99% of speakers don’t:

He does’t start by focusing on how powerful the phone is, how fast the processor is, or how it’s different from all the other phones.

He starts by talking about how it is something revolutionary that is going to completely transform and revolutionize the way we (as humans) live our lives forever, and the incredible changes that are going to take place, for the first time in history, in our lives as a result of this groundbreaking discovery.

Now, which is more exciting:

A new electronic phone … or something that is going to change the way every person on the planet lives their lives forever for the first time in history?

Can you guess why people were lining up by the millions to get the iPhone yet, while no other company has ever had such a response to their products?

This same formula worked time and time again for the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad; with people obsessively lining up by the millions sitting out in the cold for 14+ hours just to get their hands on one.

Which leads me to my next question:

What did Steve Jobs do here that was so powerful?

Going back to the iPhone example, Steve knew that people didn’t want just a phone; they wanted a story to emotionally connect with their phone.

The idea was that by buying an iPhone, you’d be among the first to experience something revolutionary and new that is going to transform your life like never before.

You weren’t just buying a piece of plastic that could make calls and manage your daily activities — you were buying something that was going to change your life, and change the world, and you were part of a revolution that was changing the world.

This is so powerful because, on a mental level, humans don’t connect with logic.

We want to FEEL like we’re a part of something; like what we’re doing has a purpose.

How to Write Powerful Content that Powerfully Connects

So, now that we’ve covered the basics, how do you personally apply this information (and this formula) to write blog posts that really pull your readers in, and literally compel them to read everything you write?

While there’s a lot of information on this topic, I’m going to break down the main points here in to a very simple formula that you can instantly use to skyrocket your results in just two simple steps — and here they are:

Use Visuals

If I use vague, bland, abstract words like communication, potential, integrity, or commitment, how do you feel? Now, how do you feel when I use words like ice cream sundae, swimming pool, or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup?

Did you notice what I did there?

The second list of words creates a FEELING, and activates your imagination through mental pictures already associated with those words. Use imagery like that and you’ll move just talking to communication where your reader is actively involved and participating in what you say.

Create A Story

If I mention a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, you’ll notice you get a picture of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in your head, as well as the emotional experience that goes along with the image; I’ve just completely gotten your focus on what I’m talking about, and I’ve captured your attention using your emotions.

Now, let’s make this ten times more powerful by adding a story to this image

If I say, “I was sitting at home after a long day of driving, and as I sat at my kitchen table I wrapped my hands around the wrapper of a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup. As I slid the wrapper open, and slowly slid the chocolate out, I began to put it in my mouth, and then proceeded to softly chew on it as the peanut butter flavor soaked up in my mouth.”

Now how does that compare to just say or writing, “I ate food yesterday”?

With the second option, you’re just reading text on a page.

But the first example takes a vague piece of text and brings it to life by getting your emotions and your imagination involved, and holds your attention and focus on exactly what I’m talking about.

Even more powerfully, what I did in the first example actually built an emotional connection with the reader.

The Keys To A Powerful Blog Post

The most important thing about your writing is that it captures people’s attention on an emotional level, and that your writing really connects with them at a one-on-one level. Do this by connecting a clear and specific mental image with a story that emotional involves your audience.

The best part is that it takes practically no effort to make these simple but very powerful changes as you’re writing. And the more you apply these techniques to your writing, the better you’ll to become at communicating and connecting with people.

What sort of content powerfully connects with you?

Author’s Bio:
Chris Nosal writes about social skills and communication mastery at popularitysecrets.com. He is the author of Popularity Secrets, and also does personal coaching and consulting.