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If you’re not learning, you’re dying

June 8, 2017 by Rosemary

Summer is here, and kids everywhere are bursting out of the classroom with glee. They can’t wait to jump into the pool, play ball with their friends, and forget about the Causes and Effects of World War II.

I remember that feeling well.

But I also remember a point, a few years after college, when I realized I could just decide to learn about something. For the pure joy of understanding something new. For the happiness of unexplored territories in my brain. For the Trivial Pursuit points.

We’re so lucky to live in a time when the world’s knowledge is literally in our laps. I can use my little MacBook Air to visit the Louvre, find out what cryptocurrency is, or learn Italian.

I actively seek out opportunities like that because it helps to punch through the comfort zone of the familiar.

Although there doesn’t have to be a reason for learning new things, it definitely helps me in my work life. A richer inner life leads to richer conversations, stronger relationships, and more empathy for the people I encounter day-to-day.

Last year, I participated in a book trade through Facebook, in which you were to send a favorite book to someone on a list, and you would receive several books back from others who were participating. It was thrilling to receive a stack of books that strangers found important in some way. There was fiction, non-fiction, and several books I never would have thought to pick up on my own (The Birth of the Modern, anyone?). It was fantastic.

I dearly hope someone starts a book trade again this year. And if you’re invited into one, say yes.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you are probably a lifelong learner already. Let’s enjoy the adventure of life together!

Online Resources for Lifelong Learning

Khan Academy – I’m currently doing “Pixar in a Box, the Art of Storytelling.” This site is free, but you can donate to support their work. Lots of subjects are offered, including math, science, and humanities.

MasterClass Online – Would you like to learn comedy from Steve Martin? (Yes I would.) For about $90, you can have at-will access to classes ranging from fashion (Diane Von Furstenberg) to novel writing (James Patterson). Students get video content, workbooks, a community, and tools specific to the course as well.

Duolingo – Abbondanza! There are so many languages available for free on this engaging site that you might have trouble deciding which one to pursue. I’ve brushed up my college Spanish, and learned enough bits of Irish to make my grandmother proud.

Codecademy – If you’d like to be a bit nerdier, Codecademy offers simple courses for various coding languages. I can vouch that it’s user-friendly; I did the HTML/CSS course a couple of years ago and it was a great foundation.

eHow – Escaping the bounds of traditional courses, eHow includes “how to make bacon jam,” and “how to make a round towel.” Each mini-tutorial is contributed by members of the site, so quality can vary, but in terms of browsing around to find something interesting to learn, it’s gold.

What are you learning right now? Please share your resources in the comments, too, so we can all learn along and live life to the fullest.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Give Your Brand More Punch by Adding Blogging

June 2, 2017 by Thomas

Is your brand kind of stuck in a rut at the moment? If so, what plans do you have to change that moving forward?

For many business owners, their brands are not where they’d like them to be right now. In fact, some are in trouble of dipping into the red when it comes to their finances. If that happens, getting out of that mess can prove quite cumbersome.

That said what are you doing to give your brand more punch?

For some, this means more marketing and advertising initiatives. Others, meantime, will turn to their products and services to see if they need improvement.

No matter how you deliver more bang for your dollar, it is important that you. With all the competition you are facing, standing pat oftentimes is a recipe for disaster.

Look at Your Website

One of the first areas of attention when looking to give your brand more punch is turning to your website.

In reviewing it, go over the following areas:

Credible and relevant information – How informative is your website? Does it provide consumers with all the details they would want to know about your business? If the answer is no, this is one area that demands your attention. One way to give out more information is having a credible blog (see more below). If blogging has been non-existent with your brand up to now, change that detail moving ahead.

Ease of use – How easy would you say your website is to use for visitors? If they feel like they’re traipsing through a maze more times than not, they’re likely not coming back. Doing regular reviews of your website is not only a good idea, it is a necessity. By doing your best to find cracks in its armor, you will lessen the odds of visitors being one-and-done guests.

Proper contact information – Do you make it simple for your online visitors to contact you? Make sure your company contact info is in an easy area to find. By doing so, you won’t have consumers jumping through hoops trying to reach out to you.
Google ranking – Finally, do you know where your company’s website ranks in online searches? If not, you should get up to speed on this all-important ranking. A strong ranking helps bring more consumers when they search for the products you offer. It can be easy to work your way up the rankings with sound search engine optimization (SEO) practices.

Blogging Your Way to Success

In mentioning blogging a little earlier, it is important to keep in mind how big of a deal your blog is.

For instance, are you doing any guest blogging on other sites? What about having guest bloggers write for your site? By reviewing guest blogging prospects, you can open up a new world of brand opportunities.

While many stick to writing all their own material, it never hurts to allow guest bloggers. In fact having some different bloggers on your site helps in several ways.

First, you bring a different tone and style to the writing on your blog. Second, those guest writers could be some of the top experts in your particular industry. Third, they are more apt to share their posts they write for you with others. By using social media, they can open your business up to countless other B2C and B2B customers.

So, don’t be afraid to blog your way to success before you know it.

As a business owner, are you doing all you can to bring more punch to your brand?

Photo credit: Pixabay

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web

How Bloggers can Succeed with the Power of Technical SEO

June 1, 2017 by Rosemary

By Ted Chong

The vast majority of online experiences start with a search engine.

You probably don’t need another person to tell you about the tremendous benefits of ranking on Google search results. Many bloggers however, place too much emphasis on content and neglect the technical aspect of SEO.

Anything with the word “technical” sounds scary – we can attest to that. However, nobody said it had to be! Embracing the technical aspect of your SEO might be one of the best business decision you’ll ever make. It lays the foundation of any content or links you built for your blog by making it easier for Google spiders to crawl your site.

Here’s the good news: WordPress is wonderful for helping to boost your technical SEO. It’s one of the best content management systems in terms of SEO. It offers many useful plugins that can help support and improve your SEO while serving as an effective guide.

One great example is Yoast, which is known as the most comprehensive and stable SEO plugin that exists today for users. In fact, leading sites like SearchEngineLand and WooCommerce use it. The best part is that it literally makes technical SEO idiot-proof for the layman.

It doesn’t mean that you can ignore the technical aspect of a website simply because you use WordPress. There are other tools outlined in the infographic below that can help you give that extra boost to your technical SEO. However, in the world of SEO, change is the only constant. Therefore one has to ensure that his website’s technical SEO is always updated. For example, most recently, the use of interstitials is said to raise a red flag with Google. Webmasters who are not in the know could risking getting penalized.

Bloggers using WordPress often find problems in these areas:

erroneous sitemaps
duplicate content
malware
lack of mobile responsiveness
sluggish site speed

These problems make it difficult for search engines to crawl and rank your website, and create frustration for users as well. On top of ranking poorly, you might even be penalized by Google for failing to adhere to their guidelines.

For example, if your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, 40% of visitors will abandon it. Simply put, the greater the loading speed, the greater the abandonment rate. Your page loading time is also part of Google’s search ranking algorithm! That’s even more reason for you to buff it up.

If you’re unsure about how to start, worry not. Google provides help and guidelines for WordPress users, including tips on how to be more mobile friendly, here!

If we’ve piqued your curiosity, check out the infographic below for a detailed explanation to help boost your site’s technical SEO.

For more elaboration and recommendation of technical SEO best practices, visit https://icecube.asia/technical-seo-101-getting-website-ranked-google-infographic/to find out more.

About the Author:

Ted Chong runs Ice Cube Marketing, a digital marketing agency in Singapore that helps local small businesses acquire leads from channels such as Facebook and Google.

See full infographic below:

Beach Notes: A lesson about patience and value

May 21, 2017 by Guest Author

By Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

At this time of the year, this vignette of trucks, boats and fishermen is a regular, sometimes daily sight on our local beaches. They are waiting for schools of mullet. Sometimes they will be waiting there literally for days on end.

Now mullet in these parts is not a highly regarded fish, and many Australians would never order mullet in preference to other fish such as bream or snapper. So it is usually sold at a significantly lower price.

So for a long time we wondered about the economics of all this waiting by the fisherman, not to mention the sunk investment in trucks and boats.

Then we found that the gold is in the mullet roe, apparently a prized – and expensive – delicacy in Japan and Taiwan, and maybe elsewhere.

Sometimes real value is not obvious.

Sometimes we have to wait for the bearers of value to appear.

Authors’ Bios: Suzie Cheel is the Heart Whisperer at Suzie Cheel You can find Suzie on Facebook and on Twitter as @suziecheel. She also shares her inspiring Beach Notes here on Sundays.

Des Walsh is a Digital Disruption Navigator at Des Walsh Dot Com You can find Des at LinkedIn and on Twitter as @deswalsh

How to Balance Your Life and Work

May 17, 2017 by Jessy Troy

Many working individuals, may they be employees or managing their own business are in constant search for the solution to have that work-life balance. Often due to the demands of work and business, time spent on leisure, health and family are jeopardized unintentionally.

But can we be faulted if all we are striving for in working the hours is still for the family’s sake, to gain financial security and guarantee our family’s and children’s future? To ensure that basic necessities are at least covered?

There is no doubt that the efforts we put in our business or work comes with plenty of benefits for the family. But we should not forget that when we decided to have a family, we have the duty of care – give it the same time and attention we give our jobs.

As much as you crave success in your professional life, so should you in the family life. And the consequences of not doing so may be devastating, with relationships and home life adversely affected. But is it possible to achieve that balance? Many believe so and those who have claimed they were able to strike that situation are healthier, happier and more fulfilled.

Here are some tips on how to stop that guilt creeping and put an end to the battle between your work and family life.

Edit your life

Stop and think what is eating up your time in a day, in a week and in a month. Is it the regular meetings of being part of that team building committee at work? A book club?

Volunteering is a good thing but if you are at the time of your life when you barely see your kids or have a good chat with them about school, then you better shuffle your priorities real soon. Perhaps you can skip that golf game with workmates every weekend. Often, gaining that extra hours in your day makes a huge difference.

Use that time saved to have a picnic or watch a movie with family instead. Do not be afraid to edit your lifestyle. As the more you have on your plate, the more you get tired and stressed and the less time you have for family fun.

Schedule

Once you narrowed down the essential activities, schedule them properly and be sure to stick with them. Use one diary and avoid having a separate diary for work and personal. This way, you can see clearly what time and days are for family affairs.

Schedule your professional work and other extra curricular activities around that family time, and not the other way around. Be diligent and consistent. It may be torturous and inconvenient at first, but soon you’ll get used to the change and the way you move appointments around.

Automate as much work as you can! You cannot be everywhere doing everything. ResultsFirst has a great guide on marketing automation: Check it out!

Be Incommunicado

One of the disadvantages of modern gadgets is they give you a false sense of needing to be accessible to workmates 24/7. Recall how our working parents and grandparents seem to have the time to dilly dally at home on weekends and evenings? Because they didn’t have mobile phones then that rings at the worst time nor emails that beg to be replied to. Do not let technology rule or ruin your life. Implement a no cellphone rule at family dinners and let business mates know.

This gesture will let your family and kids know that your utmost attention is with them at that time or day. Plus, it will help you relax and be less anxious about business matters even for a while.

Ask a mentor

Words of wisdom from people who you deem highly from work or personal relations are great to guide you in the process of finding the right balance in your life. Seek help and let them know your worries and ask them how they were able to manage family and work fairly. Recognize that it takes time to find the equilibrium you are looking for. Be patient and consistent with your goals and one day you’ll get there.

So strike the balance now. Remember that building a career or a business is as important as building your family relationships. And wouldn’t it be better if you can achieve two successes at the same time?

Image source

What to Do if an Employee Won’t Go Quietly

May 17, 2017 by Thomas

When business owners let an employee go, it is not an easy task to undertake in most cases.

Whether the individual was there for years or only a few months, you are still removing someone from a job.

You also have to take into consideration if dismissing that employee could lead to a lawsuit.

With that being the case, layoffs and firings can go down in many different ways.

He or she may actually find happiness for one reason or another to be leaving your business.

On the flip side, there are those individuals who decide they do not want to go in peace. When this occurs, you could very well have a problem on your hands.

In running your business, how do you go about telling an employee that their time with you is over?

Steps to Take Before and After a Dismissal

Even though letting a worker go may be the toughest thing you have to do, you can learn from each experience.

As you mull over whether to let the individual go, keep these questions in mind:

Am I letting them go due to work performance, budgetary constraints, or both?
Could dismissing this employee lead to positive or negative changes in office morale?
Is there a chance the employee will not go in peace?

Never feel intimidated about a layoff or firing. That said you are wise to think about the ramifications of dismissing them.

Once you have initiated the dismissal, what do you do if in fact there is any negative fallout?

If the fallout is from his or her co-workers, you’re best-served by addressing why the move took place.

Even though you do not owe the other employees a reason, you more times than not might be better off doing so.

Safeguarding Your Workplace

In the rare instances when an employee doesn’t want to go away, business owners have few options.

For example, what if the former employee continues to contact the office by phone or email?

If they chose the former, you may not know it is them behind hang-up calls.

You could opt for a reverse phone lookup, allowing you to see where the call is originating from. Such a move will help you pin down whom is on the other line.

If the calls continue, you are often left with no other choice than to get law enforcement involved.

While you could also send out a warning letter threatening legal action, it may not be enough to stop the calls.

If the former employee threatens you or other staff, take the threats seriously.

The last thing you want is a tragic preventable situation unfolding.

When any threats come via email or by letter, you have more evidence on-hand to pursue legal action.

Unlike hang-up calls, written threats prove to be better evidence.

If you discover there is a credible threat against your workplace contact authorities.

While many such threats never result in actions, don’t dismiss them.

Running a business is taxing enough for most. This is especially the case when it comes to keeping companies afloat.

Your financial well-being can be taxed even more so when the layoff or firing process does not go smoothly.

When you’ve said goodbye to one or more employees, make it clear the move is final.

By handling it the proper way on your end, you can oftentimes sidestep potential problems.

Photo credit: Pixabay

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.