I'm Ready For Ten

In articles and interviews that I've read over a number of years, successful people; internet marketers, entrepreneurs, people from a variety of interests and pursuits will invariably state that nine out of ten ideas they have for a new product/service/whatever are flops. They don't work, they bomb, they stink. But the same successful people will also tell you that the tenth idea, or eleventh, or the twelfth (don't get too hung up on the numbers here), that one idea is the one that's worth all the rest put together.

What most of us don't see, and what those who are truly successful know, is that success doesn't often happen overnight. Much to the contrary. Not only does it not happen overnight, success usually exacts a hefty price in the process.

It's easy to focus, when a person has reached a certain level of success and begins to be noticed by others, on the “trappings” of an individual's success; the relative ease with which they seem to move through business and through life. Successful people, the ones who've made it, they get the business, the best clientèle, the most customers, the promising opportunities and the most lucrative deals. But what we don't see at that stage of their success is what it actually took to get “there”.

We don't see the long nights, days or evenings spent locked away from family or friends, the frustration of having yet another project fail after hours, days or months of hard work and investment, the pressure of mounting or unanswered bills and financial obligations, or the pain and disappointment of the lack of support and understanding for what they're trying to accomplish and the goals they're attempting to reach. We're not privy to any of that, and so the picture appears very “rosy” and their efforts nearly “effortless”.

Well, I'm here to tell you that success is never “effortless”, despite much misinformation to the contrary. Olympic athletes train for years, even lifetimes to put everything they have on the line for just one chance, one opportunity to demonstrate they're the best in the world. Performers often go through hundreds or thousands of auditions, continually being told they're not good enough, not “right”, not “whatever” until that one chance, that one opportunity where they're able to demonstrate that they are indeed THE ONE. And visionaries like the Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell or even Bill Gates endure years of being told what's not possible, when they know in their very beings that what they envision is possible.

So, if you really and truly are searching for success, if you're not fooling everyone, and most of all yourself, about what it is you want to do and what you want to accomplish, get your gear on and then Go. Suck it up, quit whining, making excuses or wasting time. If you've hit on failure...Welcome to the Club. If you plan to succeed, chances are much more failure is coming your way. But if you stick it out, if you can stand the excruciating pain of the failure experience, I promise you, you will succeed.

How do I know? Because I've seen the faces of success. I've heard their voices, talked with them personally and listened to their stories. And you know what I've found? Success isn't some disembodied phantom. It exists in real people. And some of those people are not so different from you or I. Not so different at all. But you have to be honest about what you really want, then you have to be willing to do what it takes to get it. Are you?

If so, battle on.

I'm ready for number ten. How about you?

My Top 7 Marketing Blogs

(This is a page you'll want to bookmark.)

I'm in a sharing mood today, and I thought I'd start a first of what may become a series of my top ten favorites...Only today, it's my top eight.

Today, we're talking blogs.

There are so many blogs on the Internet now that there's just no way you could possibly become familiar with more than a thimble-full. What that means is that unless someone brings a particular blog or blogger to your attention (even regarding some of the better-known names and blog sites), chances are good that you may never discover them on your own.

So today, I've decided to share some of my very favorite blogs in the marketing niche with you. Some don't have a strictly marketing focus, but discuss marketing and related issues. I've included my personal Top 7 Favorite Marketing Blogs List below.

I like each of these blogs and bloggers for different reasons, but what they all have in common is great content, either through each marketer's ideas or the ideas they share, the information they present, their unique marketing perspectives and in a few cases, their style. So, without further ado, here goes:

#7 SEO Fast Start – www.SEOFastStart.com – Dan Theis is the consummate SEO professional. He's able to communicate and explain what, for some, are technical and difficult concepts, in a manner that everyday people can grasp and understand.

#6 Courtney Tuttle – www.CourtneyTuttle.com – While Courtney's style can take a bit of getting used to (I imagine that he may have issues with hyper-activeness if you met him in person), his Internet marketing insight and advice is honest, forthright, detailed (check out his 5,200+ article on Starting A Blog or 102 Ways To Make Your Site A Backlink Superstar) and effective.

#5 Dosh Dosh – www.DoshDosh.com – What I like about DoshDosh (don't you love saying it?) is that this blog offers plenty of brain food. I never come away from here without a new idea or a way of looking at an issue or challenge in a new light. The author, Maki, is most often quite thorough in “fleshing out” a subject and whether or not I agree with a particular viewpoint, whenever one is offered, I always feel that I've gotten good exercise in exploring a particular subject matter.

#4 Make Money For Beginners – www.MakeMoneyForBeginners.blogspot.com - Griz's blog is one of the best blogs I've read. The advice and insight he shares here with those attempting to make a “go” of making money online is of exceptional quality, informative, well-thought-out, helpful and action-oriented. Just wish he would post more often. Be prepared though, he can be a bit on the abrasive, “no-nonsense” side at times, so if you're at all thin-skinned, be warned. He is one of the few bloggers I've seen who really takes the time to answer comments and questions completely and thoroughly, and seems to relish doing so.

#3 Top Rank Blog/Online Marketing Blog - www.TopRankBlog.com – Lee Odden and his team are awesome. Nothing but the highest-quality information here, and because they cleverly invite commenting in their posts, you are never at a loss of additional information, insight or questions on a particular subject. First rate.

#2 The Blog Squad – www.TheBlogSquad.net - Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman, are the dynamic duo. I especially love Patsi's writing, and this blog gives it to you straight and to the point. You can get more information in a 400 - 500 word post here than you could find in an article elsewhere that's three times as long. In reading this blog you can hit it, get it, and be gone.

#1 The Marketing Maven - www.GoMarketingMaven.com – I love everything about Wendy Maynard's blog. I love the style and layout of the blog, I LOVE her logo, I really love and appreciate her style of communication. She's very laid back, and she “feels casual” without really being casual. Make no mistake, this lady is all business; no fluff, only the meat of the matter, but her style of communication fools you or maybe it's better to say “lulls” you into a state where you fell like you're reading her for enjoyment rather than working. I really like her blog.

That's it. Be sure to bookmark this page as a resource. These are all great blogs in their own right, and I encourage you to visit each and every one. They will provide you with great help and information as you move along your entrepreneurial journey.

Toodles.

Kimberly

Capturing Our Aha Moments

I'm not a stupid person. Far from being the dullest pencil in the box, I am fortunate to have had two parents (Love you Mom. Miss you Dad.) who may not have been able to agree on much of anything else, but they certainly agreed on one thing...They would have bright, sharp and intelligent children, even if it killed us.

Strategic planning, creative thinking and problem solving are all things I've become very familiar with in my professional lifetime. But there are times when it seems that I simply can't get an idea or concept “into” my head. Take calculus for example. Any of you familiar with the rigors of calculus? In college, I flunked my calculus course a full three, yes that's THREE times before I ever passed it (with the help of a VERY bright fellow student, who I think had calculus oozing out of her pores. To this day, I'm indebted to her kindness, generosity and most assuredly her patience in helping me to finally pass that course. At the time, calculus was a “required” course for passing my major field of study, and I couldn't have graduated from college in my chosen field without it). I just couldn't seem to absorb and embrace the concepts that calculus involves.

I'm not quite sure if continuing to take the class over and over (rather than changing to an easier program) ranks as another question of my level of intelligence, or is further demonstration of another trait I received from both parents... utter stubbornness and refusal to accept defeat (otherwise known as being “pigheaded”). Anyway, back to my topic.

I study information related to Internet marketing intensely, or as intensely as I can with only 24 hours in each day, and a gazillion things to accomplish in that time. I study Internet marketing because I want to be very good at it. I want to understand the concepts so that I can be more successful in my strategic planning. I want to understand what works, so that I can be better at problem solving, and sharpen my creative thinking in the development of products and services. I want to be a successful Internet marketer, so I study.

At times though, it just seems too overwhelming... and banging my head against the wall really gets quite painful! Sometimes, I become completely frustrated with the whole Internet marketing/make money online thing. Why? First, because like anything else, to be truly successful at this, no matter how “easy” people may tell you it is, you really do have to work hard for it. And second, I know that the “big dogs” in this arena, the people who are pulling down "mega bucks" in this niche aren't any smarter than I am (sorry guys, no offense intended). So it's frustrating that it can at times be extremely difficult to work through and understand the information needed to achieve success.

What I mean is for the most part, not one of them (the big dogs) seem to possess any extraordinary abilities. Of course comparisons can be made; some are much better salespeople than others, some have brought considerable skills from offline business experience into the online arena, but these people are not geniuses; not Einsteins. For all intents and purposes, they're very “regular” people. So why is it that they can grasp a concept and see in it things that I don't, which helps them to be obscenely successful, while I often-times feel like I'm just barely feeding on the crumbs around the edges of a whole bread loaf?

But just when I've had about enough (when my head should be completely bruised from all the head-banging), something magically opens up, just as simply as a light switch being flipped into the “on” position. It often happens that information I've seen and read numerous times will all of a sudden finally “click”, and I see a problem or a strategy in a whole new way, a way that leads me to some new paradigm, if not a complete solution.

At the risk of sounding too Oprah-ee, these are the “Aha” moments. The moments when you can see something with absolute and total clarity, where the pieces of the puzzle finally fit neatly and perfectly together and all is right in the universe.

These “Aha” moments are few and far between, but when you've had one, you know it. Because nothing after it is again the same...if you hold onto the moment.

By “hold onto the moment” I mean write it down, record it, document it , do whatever you have to do to capture that moment of clarity. If you don't, it may not last.

By capturing each aha moment, you create for yourself a road map, a way finder, a navigable course. And from the tool that you create for yourself, you can work your way to the success you seek.

Capture your “Aha” moments.

More On Business Blogs...

In my last post about blogging for business, I left you with a few brief tips for better business blogging. Since then, I've come across an excellent if not timely article on the subject by Lee Odden that you can view on Online Marketing Blog, entitled "5 Reasons Why Business Blogs Fail".

In the article, Mr. Odden discusses five top reasons that blogs fail. They include the following: no clear objectives, unrealistic expectations and resource allocation, not sourcing content for the long term, no feedback mechanisms and the "do it yourself" syndrome".

Although the focus of the article seems to be geared toward business or corporate entities, it certainly relates to, and is applicable to the sole proprietor's circumstances as well. Overall, according to his article, the failure of most business blogs often boils down to little or poor planning prior to the blog's creation.

For a very interesting and informational discussion on the subject of business blogs, I highly recommend you review "5 Reasons Why Business Blogs Fail". It's well worth your time, and will help to enlighten you relative to your own situation.

Toodles.

I'm Back, And Are You Blogging For Business?

Hello All-

I know, I know...It's been a little while since I last posted, and some of you may have thought, even hoped, I'd fallen into the abyss. No such luck! I'm still here, it's just that the last month or so has been extremely busy for me both personally and professionally.

And while many bloggers offer guest posts when they're going to be "out", that's not something that I've decided to do on this blog. One reason is that I have not actively cultivated a list of potential guest bloggers, and no one has volunteered to be on any such list. Another reason is that even when a guest blog is published, I am still required to review the material to ensure the quality of the message, and the information being passed on to you through my blog. In other words, even when I host guest bloggers, I still gotta do some work that requires time and attention.

Anyway, this is a short message to let you know that I'll begin posting more regularly again now, and I do apologize for my extended absence.

Also, I did want to announce here that the winner of our $50 cash drawing for the online marketing survey, which ended June 1st, was Chrisanthi Alexandrou.
Congratulations to Chrisanthi!

Before I go, let me ask a question?

Do you blog for business? Blogging has become an extremely popular method for businesses, both large and small, to stay connected to their clientèle and to reach out to new prospects. As I wind up today's post, let me leave you with some brief tips for better business blogging:

1. Blog with the goal of educating, informing, entertaining or engaging your readers, or better yet, when possible, do all of these.

2. Infuse your blog with your own personality. Do you have any idea just how many blogs there are now? Millions and millions. In order for readers to want to read your blog more than the one time they just happened to find it, you have to give them something worth coming back for. And while everybody has access to information, facts, figures, etc., no one else sees, interprets and communicates that information to others in exactly the same way as you do. Make your blog something truly unique.

3. Whenever possible, link to other information sources related to your post. This connects your blog to other blogs, credible information sources such as industry news and authoritative sites, and boosts your own credibility as an authority and a source. It also helps you to establish network connections within your niche or industry.

That's it for today.

See You Soon! Toodles!
Kimberly


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