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Pressure

January 19, 2012 By

As business owners and Americans we are under a great deal of pressure these days. Pressure to perform, to fix things, to fix the economy, the unemployment rate, the housing market. You name it we’ve ‘got to fix” it.

Champions respond very differently to pressure. When the pressure is on champions do their best work. Nancy Kerrigan, Olympic Figure Skater said: “Part of being a champ is acting like a champ. You have to learn how to win and not run away when you lose. Everyone has bad stretches and real successes. Either way, you have to be careful not to lose your confidence or get too confident.”

So we can all be champions in every area of our lives. And that means acting like a champ, not losing our confidence or getting too egotistic. Champions face challenges head on and develop themselves while working through the challenge.

Let’s prove to ourselves and the world the real champions we are. We are bigger than any circumstance.

Brie Wells
www.briewells.lifesuccessconsultants.com
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The Winning Edge

January 19, 2012 By

Six Steps to the Winning Edge.

All high achievers in life have a common quality: they have mastered positive habits. It’s sad but underachievers fail because they haven’t mastered the one quality that will shift their results; choosing good habits. They always let things slip. They do not give enough attention to and hold little concern for the things that can add up to good habits.
A familiar one is follow up calls. Exercise and health is another What does that mean? Setting aside time for follow up calls and only doing that at that time each day. One hour day for follow up calls. So what can you do today to begin good habits.

Step One
Identify one habit or area in your life that needs more focus. Start with one specific behavior that you would like to improve. Describe something you do now that you would like to stop doing, or something that you would like to start doing. Use this step to describe the outcome you would like to accomplish. Only take one habit for now. Attempting to do too much may leave you discouraged.

Step Two
Find role models Ask yourself: “who does this right?” by identifying at least one person in your goal area you will see others have completed that same objective. The people you list need not be personal friends. You may not know them at all. They might even be historical figures. The point is to find people whom you would like to emulate.

Step Three
List the benefits of gaining self-discipline in this area. Ask yourself: “what’s in it for me?” Why do you want to develop in this area. List rewards that will help you. You need to be-able to see yourself, feel yourself doing this behavior. Focus on having achieved your goal.

Step Four
Consider the Danger Zones. Consider where you will fall, what are your weak areas. We have all been down this path, we start off strong, then something happens and we stumble next we fall then we are right back on the road to our old habit.

Step Five
In this step give some specific thought to the actions you will take to accomplish your goal. You must decide in advance that you will be dedicated to taking action. Even if it’s small steps each day. Don’t wait to feel like doing it, decide when and put yourself in place to do it.

Step Six
Get a support team. This step is crucial. If you don’t do this step you will cheat yourself; this is the real power behind the system. Set up a call each day or week, no more than 10-15 minutes to check in and let them know of your results, the good, bad and the ugly.

Brie Wells www.briewells.lifesuccessconsultants.com
LifeSuccess Consultant briewells@lifesuccessconsultants.com
Seminars & Coaching
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Don’t make a “Goal” instead make a “Promise”

January 19, 2012 By

This is the time of year that many of us start to think about ‘setting goals’.

I try to pull out my “Goal Plan” (a sheet of paper I wrote them on) to see where I am on their achievement on a regular basis.

I end up ‘hitting’ some and not others.

I started to give this more thought and study this month in anticipation of the New Year (Resolution). I came across a Bill Bateman video on iLG where he was talking about his “10 Step Goal Setting” process. It was all really good information – much that I had already learned, but it was good to revisit. He said ‘one thing’ that completely changed the way I’m looking at my personal and business ‘goal setting’.

He said to replace the word ‘Goal‘ with the word ‘Promise‘ when we go about this task. He offered up a study by Harvard that indicated that people “miss their Goals” 76% of the time – but “achieve their Promises” 98% – and that got me thinking about how my own mind interprets the difference between the two words.

First off, I am rare to make ‘Promises’ – I completely understand on a very “Conscious‘ level what that means and I always remember both Mom and Dad teaching ‘how you never make Promises you can’t keep’. Which explains on my subconscious level how I feel about this same word… It is to be taken very seriously!!!

As to ‘Goals’ – for some reason I seem to have an entirely different internal perspective about that word. I’ve made them most my life and if I did not achieve them I would refine either the goal or the time frame and simply forgive myself – or hit a mulligan (do it over).

This year I intend to do this one simply thing; I intend to create my ‘Promise Plan’ for 2009 and in it I intend to make some real ‘Promises’ on what I ‘will do’ both Personally and Business wise this coming year. So far the list is already much shorter as it forces me to ‘filter’ things better and interestingly it also ended up covering the ‘most’ important things.

Maybe this will help you as well. Best to you and yours in 2009 – I ‘Promise’ :)
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The Golden (Platinum) Rule = The Social Networking Rule

January 18, 2012 By

We speak of it and we try to live by it – “treat others as you would like to be treated.”

To me it’s the main rule one needs to follow within Social Networking.

The Golden Rule was a common principle in ancient Greek philosophy.

A few examples:

“Do not to your neighbor what you would take ill from him.” (Pittacus)

“Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing.” (Thales)

“What you wish your neighbors to be to you, such be also to them.” (Sextus the Pythagorean)

“Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others.” (Isocrates)

“What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others.” (Epictetus)

A couple snippets from different world views…

Christianity:

Matthew 7:12
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

Luke 6:31
“Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.”

Judaism:

“That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”

Buddhism:

“One who, while himself seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other
beings who also desire happiness, will not attain happiness hereafter.”

Confucius:

“Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.”

Hinduism:

“That man who regards all creatures as his own self, and behaves towards them as towards his own self, laying aside the rod of chastisement and completely subjugating his wrath, succeeds in attaining to happiness.”

Islam:

“Woe to those . . . who, when they have to receive by measure from men, exact full measure, but when they have to give by measure or weight to men, give less than due”

Taoism:

“Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.”

The “The Platinum Rule” adds a nice addition to the “Golden Rule”…

“The golden rule is a good standard which is further improved by doing unto others, wherever possible, as they want to be done by.”

You’ll see lot’s of “Top 10 Rules of Social Networking” – pick any of the above and I think you’ll have it covered.
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Viral Marketing Explained

January 18, 2012 By

Viral marketing: the type of marketing that facilitates and encourages people to forward an email video, or online marketing message or experience to others on the World Wide Web; an electronic form of word-of-mouth marketing.

If I were to start an online virtual welcome center for the concept of Web 2.0, on the front page I would have this message:

“Welcome to Web 2.0. Here, everything is about us and none of it will ever be about you.”

This message would be to all advertisers, marketing firms, businesses, musicians, artists, and anyone else who crosses over the line from producer and creator to viewer and consumer.

Think about this: instead of spending a ton of money on newspapers ads, TV and radio commercials, or even banner ads, you spent almost nothing and let your audience do all the work for you. The audience becomes a fan of you and your style. Remember the John West Red Salmon commercial? Probably not, but if I said, “do you remember that video on Youtube where the man attacks a bear for his salmon? You might begin to remember:



With this type of viral video marketing, your campaigns will suddenly get a life of their own, spreading like a virus throughout the Internet. Now if you look at the statistics, this video on Youtube has almost half a million viewers who have seen it. This figure does not include the other social media sites it has been on. Not only that, I’m sure many people have it on their Myspace pages, Facebook, etc. It has been passed around via email who knows how many times. The point is, this type of marketing gets a lot of face time if done right. Everyone will want to see it, and when they do, they all want to share it with their friends, coworkers, families,etc. The best part is that if its good, it will draw viewers for years. Have you ever heard of CurrentTV? Check out CurrentTV online or if you have cable tv, you may have it as part of your package. Either way, check it out. Users can upload videos to the website and then if they become popular, current will also include it in their programming schedule. This means, for a small amount of money you can potentially secure a wide audience on the Internet and on television. Many other networks are jumping on the bandwagon. Mtv has a show as well as a host of others.

Check out this viral video for Dove Ogilvy:



Guess how many viewers have watched this on Youtube alone?

7,713,193 and rising

That’s a lot of eyeballs in a two plus year period.

Viral campaigns can be extremely powerful, with at least 500-1000 times more impact than what you would get from conventional advertising.

And how is that you ask?

There are a lot of tried and true methods to viral marketing. Here are some of the most important ones:

Make people feel something
The most important thing of all is to create strong emotions. You need to have an opinion and express an idea with commitment and dedication. Think of it as a short story or a short film instead of a sales pitch. Give the viewer a reason to watch and they will.

You want people to get excited

Stop trying to please everyone. Stop supporting several demographics, or any of the many ways to be unbiased and politically correct. Viral marketing is no less than 100% emotional.

Something that’s not expected

If you want people to notice you campaign, you have to try something different that’s completely unexpected. Stop trying to promote your products as just being great. Everyone has something great to offer. Stop trying to make it look cool, hip and cutting edge. Everyone else is cool, hip, and cutting edge, or at least that is their goal.

In the Salmon Commercial we see the unexpected: Man beats up bear, man steals salmon. This has been one of the most effective and successful viral advertisements to date.

Do not make advertisements

The biggest mistake you can make is when you think viral marketing is people just sharing your advertisements. This could not be any farther from the truth. Conventional marketing is all about promoting your product, service or talent by showing how good it is, and placing it on stage and in the spotlight. These type of advertisements tend to be self-centered by using models, movies stars, and “experts”. The truth is,

No one cares, so why go to the expense?

Viral marketing is all about having a great story. Stop thinking about yourself. Stop thinking about your products, services, and your company. Completely focus on creating an interesting story. Everyone likes a good story. You can add you product into the mix, but it must not be the most important thing or the focus of the story.

Check out Hewlett Packard’s Campaign for laptops:



We did not see any sales pitch or blatant advertising here, just a neat video with finger skills.

Sharing is caring

Allow users to download, share and embed your viral videos.
Sharing is what viral marketing is all about. Anything you can do to make it easier for the viewer will stand to improve your campaign.

Connections are made with comments

Always attempt to connect with your audience. Don’t forget: You have their attention now and they are excited. They now want to talk about it.

Ideas for campaigns

Here are some ideas for campaigns:

• Behind the scenes footage
• Bloopers
• Contests
• Games
• Challenges
• Documentary
• Short film
• Fake news story

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Gary Nicholson is a Freelance Internet Marketing Consultant and the author of many articles on the subject of SEO and Web Marketing. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he works with artists, writers, entertainers and small to mid sized businesses helping to shape their online identity and search-ability.
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What is SEO?

January 18, 2012 By

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is the process of editing and organizing content on a web page in order to get higher rankings in search engines and to increase its relevancy to specific keywords. SEO is also making sure external links are correctly titled and are not only abundant, but relevant. This is what is considered organic search and the idea is to obtain a higher organic search listing, thus increasing the amount of traffic from search engines. SEO is one of the most important key elements of Web Marketing. SEO can target several types of searches like Image Search: A way of inserting meta data into an image’s file in order to force search engines to pick it up.

local search: Placing keyword phrases like “Roofing 90034” into a page’s meta file. using a zip code can be effective, but most times using Google maps is better. and industry specific vertical search engines: using sites like Ask.com where you answer questions based upon expert advice from your targeted industry. SEO considers what people search by in the search engines whether its a keyword like the word ‘Apple” or whether or not its a keyword phrase like, ‘Apple Macintosh Computers”. SEO also involves html coding to remove any barriers by editing its content and removing any obstacles in indexing a sites page.

It is easier to implement SEO techniques when building a site than implementing it in a site that is already built.

There are two types of SEO techniques:
Black Hat and White Hat. Black Hat, or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing( the process of stuffing articles and meta files with words that are of little relevance to the reader) This type of SEO Degrades the relevance of search results and the user experience of search engines. Search engines now look closely for these techniques and often remove them from their index. Basically, Black Hat is using UNETHICAL SEO techniques to improve rankings. White hat SEO is using ethical techniques such as insisting on relevant content and relevant keywords. Another technique is using geolocation techniques such as Google maps and placing GEO coordinates into the actual map interface. Google maps actually looks for specific addresses that are local based upon this information.

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Gary Nicholson is a Freelance Internet Marketing Consultant and the author of many articles on the subject of SEO and Web Marketing. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he works with artists, writers, entertainers and small to mid sized businesses helping to shape their online identity and search-ability.
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What is SEO?

January 18, 2012 By

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is the process of editing and organizing content on a web page in order to get higher rankings in search engines and to increase its relevancy to specific keywords. SEO is also making sure external links are correctly titled and are not only abundant, but relevant. This is what is considered organic search and the idea is to obtain a higher organic search listing, thus increasing the amount of traffic from search engines. SEO is one of the most important key elements of Web Marketing. SEO can target several types of searches like Image Search: A way of inserting meta data into an image’s file in order to force search engines to pick it up.

local search: Placing keyword phrases like “Roofing 90034” into a page’s meta file. using a zip code can be effective, but most times using Google maps is better. and industry specific vertical search engines: using sites like Ask.com where you answer questions based upon expert advice from your targeted industry. SEO considers what people search by in the search engines whether its a keyword like the word ‘Apple” or whether or not its a keyword phrase like, ‘Apple Macintosh Computers”. SEO also involves html coding to remove any barriers by editing its content and removing any obstacles in indexing a sites page.

It is easier to implement SEO techniques when building a site than implementing it in a site that is already built.

There are two types of SEO techniques:
Black Hat and White Hat. Black Hat, or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing( the process of stuffing articles and meta files with words that are of little relevance to the reader) This type of SEO Degrades the relevance of search results and the user experience of search engines. Search engines now look closely for these techniques and often remove them from their index. Basically, Black Hat is using UNETHICAL SEO techniques to improve rankings. White hat SEO is using ethical techniques such as insisting on relevant content and relevant keywords. Another technique is using geolocation techniques such as Google maps and placing GEO coordinates into the actual map interface. Google maps actually looks for specific addresses that are local based upon this information.

Bookmark and Share

Gary Nicholson is a Freelance Internet Marketing Consultant and the author of many articles on the subject of SEO and Web Marketing. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he works with artists, writers, entertainers and small to mid sized businesses helping to shape their online identity and search-ability.
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Blogging statistics you should know about

January 17, 2012 By

Every small business person, artist, writer,etc should by now understand that a blog is one of the most important tools you can have in your web marketing arsenal.

Blogging is for more than just monkeys

Technorati's stae of the blogosphere 2008

If you have not read Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report for 2008, you should. Here are some of the highlights:

* The majority of bloggers are male and the report shows that 57% are in the USA and 73% are in Europe and Asia.

* A large number of bloggers have graduated from college and make more than $ 75K per year. Say, didn’t Sarah Palin make a reference about bloggers being young kids in their boxers sitting in Mom’s basement? Doesn’t look that way according to the report.

* 77% of netizens read blogs and its been shown that blogs receive more unique visitors than Facebook or MySpace combined.

* Most bloggers are logging an average of three years worth of blogging experience.

* The combined worldwide bloggers are creating around one million posts per day. Now thats a lot of content!

Go here for Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report for 2008
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Common Mistakes made by Web Designers

January 17, 2012 By

So here are some of the most common mistakes made by web designers. As a potential client its important that you make sure your web designer is knowledgeable and understands these 9 elements of a website’s design, look, and overall ease of use.

1. Using Frames

Frames are supposed to break up the browser window with separate sub windows. These are called frames. While these frames are supposed to help, they usually serve only to confuse the visitor. When a visitor clicks through(forward) they become uncertain as to what information will appear and in what sub window and if they move backward(back arrow) they can be pushed out of the website altogether which can be frustrating for the website visitor. Another point to consider is that many websites with frames built in require specific screen sizes. This can quickly become a nightmare and a possible loss of a potential customer. More often than not, a frustrated web visitor will quickly favor another site(possibly your competitor) that has an easier navigation sense to it. If you just have to create frames, then make sure you create a non-frames version, effectively giving your web visitors a choice in navigation..

2. Using too much Technical Gadgetry

Many designers like to use a lot of technical items on their webpages to try an impress the viewer. While this may or may not actually occur, adding such things as input boxes, too much flash,opening new browser windows and background music can affect your site’s performance if overused. Not only that, but eventually these things, if overused, will end up being more of a bother to a returning visitor. If you really must have these items, use them tastefully and don’t go overboard.

3. Pardon our Dust…

Under construction signs placed on your website are a big no no. Great websites are always under construction, but do you really want to advertise this? No! How many times have you been to the mall or on a highway where you see a sign that says “Under Construction” or “pardon our dust” When you see these signs on the freeway, your immediate thought is “oh no, I’m probably going to be stuck in traffic now.” or at the mall where you have to go some other route to get to the store you want to go to because the route you normally take is closed for construction. Under construction signs might mean progress, but they tend to bring up negative connotations. If your site is under construction, its better to not place it online until its working properly and all bugs have been worked out. A site that is not working properly, will be easily noticeable by a web visitor anyway, so don’t put the site up until its ready.

4. Fonts and Fonts, and more Fonts, but are they the right Fonts?

This is a huge problem with newer web designers. New designers tend to get caught up in all the available fonts, font colors, sizes, styles,etc. and they tend to want to use them all. Text needs to do one thing: convey information without complication. Making text to small, too large, and with too many colors will only make it harder on the reader. Underlining words also makes text difficult to read and is often confusing in that text links are normally underlined. The idea behind text is to make it attractive to the reader and to present it in an easy to read format. If you need a piece of text to stand out or make a point, then try bolding the particular text or highlight it. Body text font sizes should be set to normal, large body text is hard to read and is often jarring. Keep large text to headlines only. Oversized text does not hide a website’s lack of content.

5. Backgrounds

Background graphics can be tempting, but you have to be careful; backgrounds for text can fool the eye and make the text harder to read. So if you have a dark background with dark text it will be harder to read. Same goes for light backgrounds with light text. Complex background such as a photo, can actually cause your viewer to ignore whats on the page and focus on the background instead. While this may work as an advantage for a professional photographer or artist’s website, it just
not going to work for the typical business website. Complex backgrounds can also make your site take longer to load.

6. Animations can be a Nightmare

Animations can be a disaster for your site if not used properly. Using too much flash on your website can do two things: Cause your visitor to surf somewhere else due to the amount of time it takes to load, and the fact that a viewer must have the most current version of flash in order to view your site. If the viewer cannot easily load your site, then don’t expect a return visit. Some other animations are blinking text, gif images,moving graphics,mouse overs and mouse trails. While these might be used to try and impress the viewer, more often than not, they tend to distract the viewer and of course make the page harder to load. Some people can disable javascript in their browser which effectively blocks some of these types of animations. The idea behind a great website is to keep the viewer focus on what is being presented by you and your company’s products and services. A good return on your investment does not revolve around fancy imagery(unless that is what you are selling in the first place).

7. Linking

Always link your internal pages back to the main page of your website. Every page needs to belong to something, so make that stand out. This is also good for optimizing your page for the search engines. Making your page easy to navigate for the spiders, will ensure your page gets a better ranking. Also be sure and check your links to make sure they all work correctly and that they go to the intended page or site. Outdated links cause search engines to lower your rankings and cause your visitors confidence in your site to quickly erode. Links should always be relevant to your content and message. If you are a toy company, then you don’t want to link to “Joe’s auto repair” because its not relevant and you will take a hit in search engine ranking for this.

8. Organization

All of your pages should be user friendly and include a site map with a page hierarchy. Good navigation is the foundation of any successful website. Great designers tend to use similar layouts between pages to avoid confusion and give the viewer an easy sense of navigation.

9. Content Creation

Many webpages don’t have any unique content. Unique content is what makes a successful website. A webpage with minimal content and link lists serves no useful purposes and will receive few visitors if any. The real key is content. The more relevant information you can give, the better off you will be. Add a unique voice to your product or service/ What makes your product better? How is your service better than your competitors? Think about how you can provide content to help the visitor better understand your industry and think about designing your site, so that it becomes more of an authoritarian entity on the subject or specific industry you choose to write content for.

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Gary Nicholson is a Freelance Internet Marketing Consultant and the author of many articles on the subject of SEO and Web Marketing. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he works with artists, writers, entertainers and small to mid sized businesses helping to shape their online identity and search-ability.
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“Tell the world what you intend to do, but first show it.”

January 17, 2012 By

That is from the chapter on Decision, in Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. He goes on to say “deeds and not words, are what count most”.

Wow. So simple and something for me to consciously practice on a daily basis. My actions, and not my words, are what communicates the deepest.
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