Set Realistic Goals
By | July 15, 2010
Having goals is a wonderful thing. Clear goals keep you motivated and help you to measure your success. Goals help get you through the tough times as you remember what you’re working for.
It is important to set goals high enough that you feel a sense of accomplishment when we attain them. But it is equally important to set goals that we actually have a reasonable chance of achieving.
What Happens When You Set Goals Too High?
Goals that are too high or unrealistic usually represent milestones that are important to you. For instance, you might set a goal of selling 1,000 copies of your new product in a month, for example. If you achieve that, it will certainly be something to celebrate. But if you don’t, it could leave you disappointed and lower your morale.
When deciding on goals, it is crucial to consider whether or not they have a reasonable chance of being met. It’s necessary to push yourself and have incentives to work harder and achieve more. Yet if a goal has an extremely slim chance of being attained, it can do more harm than good.
How Do You Determine Whether or Not Your Goals Are Too High?
Before you set a goal, it is important to examine its feasibility. If you have been in business for a while, you may be able to look back on similar projects and see how well they turned out. If you’re just starting out, it can be a little more difficult.
The Internet provides a way to check the feasibility of some goals. Many small business owners blog about their experiences, and with a little searching you might find the details of how goals that relate to yours turned out. It is important to remember, however, that circumstances differ. What worked for others may not work for you, and vice versa.
If your goals are sales-related, some analysis of contributing factors might help in setting them. Going back to the product example, finding information about sells rates from people in a similar industry as you can be helpful.
With these numbers, you can use your site traffic to estimate how many sales you can expect. If the figure you come up with is substantially less than the goal you are considering, you may want to go back to the drawing board or find ways to boost your traffic.
If you do find that you have set a goal too high, don’t let it discourage you. Consider it a learning experience. Next time it might be wise to give yourself more time or lower your standards a bit. There may also be something that could have been done differently for better results.
Challenging yet realistic goals can make a huge difference in your business. Each time we achieve a new goal, we build momentum. By considering the likelihood of attaining our goals when setting them, we set ourselves up for success.
Topics: Entrepreneurs, How-To's | 3 Comments »
Blog Platforms
By | June 29, 2010
Blogging is a wonderful way to connect with your audience, to provide valuable and useful information to prospects and customers, to sell your products and services, and to drive traffic to your website. In fact, more people are using blogs as their actual website than any other platform these days.
However, before you begin to blog or even start to set one up, you have one very important decision to make. Which blogging platform will you use? Here are a few tips on how to use blog platforms successfully.
The Big Three and Beyond
A blog platform is essentially a product which a blog or website is based on. In many cases they’re the service you use to host and publish your blog. In the blogging world, there are three big players with a host of smaller platforms.
The big three are:
* Blogger, now owned by Google
* Typepad
* WordPress
Other Blogs
There is also MoveableType.org, which is an open source publishing platform.
Another is Joomla, which offers blogging capabilities but is considered more of a website platform than a blogging platform.
There are many other website hosts which offer blogging functions; however, they’re not traditional platforms.
When you choose a blogging platform, you’re looking for a few key ingredients. You’re looking for:
* Ease of use – If you have to jump through hoops and read a 1000 page manual to get a blog up and running, you’re not going to want to do it. Intuitive interfaces and easy to find information are essential.
* Functionality – It needs to be user friendly for your customers and prospects, and that means easy to navigate and easy to use.
* Features – You want your blog to be able to do what you want and need it to do, including sell products and services, host contests, take feedback and so on.
* Price – Always a consideration.
* Customization – You want to be able to make your blog look and feel exactly like you want it to without a ton of work, time and money.
* Reputation – You want a platform that’s going to be around for years and years to come so you don’t have to switch your blog to a different platform.
Before you choose a blogging platform you’ll want to spend some time determining what you want your blog to accomplish.
If for example you want to optimize your blog for the first page of the search engines, you’re going to want a blog that is easy to optimize and maybe has search engine optimization plug-ins. This means making a list of your requirements before you even begin comparing blogging platforms.
Another important thing to consider is where your blog is going to be hosted. TypePad and Blogger are both hosted blogs, meaning your URL will include the blog name along with your domain name.
The same is true for Blogger. WordPress gives you options. You can host your blog on WordPress or redirect it to another host so your URL is whatever you want it to be.
Read everything about your blogging platform before you go through the work to customize it and set it up. Some hosted blogging platforms do not allow advertising, for example, and if that’s something you want to do then you’ll need to consider those restrictions before you sign on.
The good news is that blogging is usually free and unless you hire a professional designer to customize it then your start-up expenses are nominal. (There’s a $10 fee to redirect a WordPress blog to another host.) Choosing your blogging platform just takes a little time and research. Happy blogging.
Topics: How-To's, Internet Business | No Comments »
Viral Marketing to Gain Visibility
By | June 29, 2010
Viral marketing is one of the best Internet marketing tools you can use to grow your business. With proper viral marketing techniques, you can gain visibility very quickly, even in a few days.
If you’re not famliar with the term, viral marketing is essentially capturing your market with a marketing tool that’s passed from person to person. For example, YouTube can be a viral marketing tool as people love to share videos, especially funny or shocking ones. However, other products can be viral as well.
You can capture your market online with these viral marketing tools and tactics:
* eBooks
* Reports
* Workshops, seminars or online course
* Video or audio
In order to make these marketing tools viral you’ll need to make sure they accomplish a few things. Viral means that they’re passed from person to person and the more quickly items are passed, the bigger the market you’re able to capture. So let’s think about what makes someone pass along a bit of information. They’d forward it to a friend if it is:
1. Entertaining.
Humor is a great way to capture a viral market online. People love to laugh and if you can make them laugh and market your business at the same time, you’re golden. Video is the easiest tool to capture an online audience with humor. Try creating a funny advertisement and posting it on YouTube.
2. Thought provoking and/or controversial.
Controversy can really get people talking. However, you must walk a fine line when going viral with a controversial book, report, video or other product because it can backfire.
3. Valuable.
Regardless of the fact that there’s an abundance of information available online today, people still hold quality content in high value. If you can create an informative product, people will share it with others.
But how do you use a viral product to promote your business?
When using something like a video or audio, you can market your product or service directly in the content. You can also make sure to incorporate your company name and URL into the content.
The same holds true for any print product like an eBook or a report. Simply make sure that you include a link or two back to your website. You can also place an “about the author” type page inside your book and a separate page to promote your products and services. The choice on how you promote yourself is yours; just make sure to let people know where to go for more information.
To capture your online market with viral marketing you’ll also want to make sure your viral content is placed where your audience hangs out. Use social networking, advertising and PPC, article marketing and so on to draw attention to your viral product. Get the word out and then let your viral content do its job. This is another great Internet marketin tool that you will want to understand and use.
Topics: How-To's, Internet Business | 2 Comments »
Stop Waiting to Live
By | May 26, 2010
Tomorrow never comes; once tomorrow gets here it’s today. Waiting for tomorrow to do what you should have started long ago is only going to keep you from ever succeeding.
It’s so easy to get into the habit of saying “Wait” or “I’ll do that later” instead of taking up the mantel of responsibility and just getting on with living life fully today. This isn’t saying you have to ignore the facts:
- Yes, the timing must be right to pursue your dreams.
- Yes, you have to get the right obligations out of the way, like taking care of family, children, elderly parents, if that’s what you are supposed to do.
- Yes, you may have to finish the fight on the hard challenge that have come your way.
But once those have gone and you know the time is now, you have to get started on living the true purpose of your life.
- Do you ever wonder why certain people have a yearning in the heart to do something big?
- Do you think this is a universal yearning or do you think some people are content to be where they are in life?
It seems that for some the yearning is stronger or more real than others. I believe everyone is born with a purpose to fulfill in life that will leave the world a better place as a result. That task may be small or only touch one single life. But touching that life will cause a ripple effect that will reach out to places unknown.
I also believe that some people refuse to do what is on their heart. Knowing that there is a great thing to do, they refuse to answer that life calling and ignore it until life is over for them.
- You know in your heart that you are supposed to be doing more.
- You know you are supposed to be doing greater things.
I believe a life purpose is set in the heart of every person at birth. When you refuse to heed the persistence of that life calling, you live a life unfulfilled.
- Are you denying the call of your life purpose?
- Are you letting the past, or your fears, or unforgiveness, or confusion keep you from identifying what is great about you so you can start sharing it with the world?
I’ve been in settings where the most unlikely person got up and made a presentation that changed the direction of everyone in the room. Through very simple words or a brief exercise or by sharing a piece of art or playing a simple arpeggio, lives were changed.
What are you supposed to be doing with your life? When will you start doing it?
Topics: Inspiration, Personal Care | No Comments »
When Going in Circles Is the Victory (Joshua 6, NIV)
By | May 23, 2010
The annual season for the Relay for Life by the American Cancer Society takes place around the same time every year. Hundreds and thousands of people from communities around the nations and world, walk a circular path around field, tracks or parks to show a united front to raise money and bring awareness that supports research for Breast Cancer and other cancers.
We walk for family members and for people we will never personally meet. My first walk in this event was in the middle of a beautiful afternoon in the Sunken Gardens of a historic park. The sun was shining and a cool breeze from the Pacific Ocean made the atmosphere ideal. Along the pathway were “stops” that reminded us that we weren’t just out for a good time, but on a mission to reach a goal. At one spot the walkers were asked to sign a pledge card to do something real and practical to be proactive in the fight against cancer. I signed a pledge card to get a mammogram then tied the pledge card to a vertical pole that was becoming crowded with various pledges. Now I was obligated to follow through with this medical test.
Continuing on my walk became more sober; instead of chatting lightly about the day it made me think about the reality of breast cancer and how my cousin had found a lump in her breast so unexpectedly after years of not having any problems. Today she is a breast cancer survivor. I’d avoided mammograms. The last one hurt and I made great excuses about how I really didn’t need one. But excuses are often fears instead of faith. I was being hit in the face with a reality of my life. I would get my mammogram and be able to testify to other women about the importance of facing the fear and doing it as soon as possible.
After the afternoon walk, I took a break and a nap to return to walk during the night. The night walk presented a completely different atmosphere with the walking path lit by luminaries. These small white bags, lit from inside with a tiny candle had been created by some of the walkers earlier in the evening and had names, pictures, poems and prayers of loved ones who had lost their battle with cancer. Walking in the night with just these lights along the path brought a new sense of the enemy of cancer. Now our walking woke up strong memories of brave fights of loved ones gone before. The reality of fear, death, courage, hope and survival was the wind that blew through our nostrils. It was a bittersweet fragrance of defeat and victory mixed in one.
As I walked in the early morning hours from 12:30 a.m. to 3:00 a.m., I thought, does walking in this big circle really mean anything? Does it really help to reach a goal? Then I thought about Jericho as the story of the capture of Jericho unfolds in Joshua 6:1.
“Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.” Joshua 6:1, NIV)
Jericho was the land promised to the Israelites by the Lord. As the Israelites approached Jericho to claim it, the army and citizens of Jericho had closed the fortitude gates to keep the Israelites out. Surely the hope of victory seemed futile. What could a bunch of Israelites who had been in a desert for years do to get through the barriers of a well fortified city? The best they had to fight their battle with was their Priests, the Lord and their faith.
As I walked around in circles during this Relay for Life, the inner part of the area that we encircled became like an illustration of a Jericho. Inside was the answer to the problem of cancer. It was fortified and unyielding in providing an answer and a cure. The best we all seemed to have was our feet, the organizers and our prayers to the Lord.
The Israelites were instructed to walk around Jericho with the Ark of the Covenant representing the Lord and the Armed Guard of Priests in front. The people were told to march quietly until the time was right to move in to capture the land. “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then Shout!” (Joshua 6:10, NIV).
They walked in circles around the city of Jericho then returned to their camp, doing this for six days, waiting for the right time to get instructions to raise their voices in a war cry to gain victory.
The Relay for Life meant walking; walking for hours, walking for days, walking for years, walking together with others from around the nation and world against a common enemy; walking together in the unity of prayer while rejoicing in faith that the cure for cancer was coming.
Like a huge enemy fortified against the hopes of the people, cancer stands in the center of the battle, trying to remain an elusive foe. But the Lord let this turn into a new vision; that by marching without a war cry, marching without raising voices; by marching without saying a word, the battle is being fought and the victory will arrive.
Suddenly it was very clear why we were walking on our path throughout the day and the night. It was clear why the time was provided for prayer and faithfulness to grow. It was clear that the battle was not ours, but the Lords. Nothing, not even cancer has a stronghold that the Lord will not defeat. It is only by staying faithful in the part we can do, even though it seems small, that we will be ready to see the victory when the time comes.
Topics: Bible & Business, Inspiration | 1 Comment »