Why Taking A Risk Is The Only Way To True Success

Some words of wisdom By Chad Howse  

What used to be safe, is no longer. What’s “safe” in today’s volatile economy and society, is risk.

Not long ago it was safe to go to college, get a degree, then get a job in the field of your study. That's no longer true.

Today, someone is working the job you want to have. They have experience, you don’t – and no one’s hiring. You have to make your own way. College is no longer your best investment unless you’re going into a field that needs a degree (doctor, dentist etc…); even then, success is far from guaranteed, and paying that investment back is even harder.

And so, you’re left to your own devices. You’re kicked to the curb, forced to see what you can offer the world – and if they’ll accept it. Or, you can go another route: you can find something that excites you, and give it to the world.

The Global Economy

The world is your oyster. The internet has opened borders, broadened your niche, market, and potential client base. You can now reach anyone with a computer – like I do with my business. You don’t even have to learn their language, there are apps that can translate the text for them.

All you need to do is give people something unique, in a unique way, and with passion.

The good news: you can reach far more people than you used to be able to.

The “bad” news: average doesn't cut it any longer.

Doing an average job used to mean security. Today, an average – or even a good job – may mean you’re replaced by someone who does what you do, only they do it exceptionally.

With the expanding of the client base, the broadening of what can be done, and the incredible lack of employment, should you seek a career, or risk it all and create your own path?

What does a “career” offer?

The likely risk of being laid off (seniority is king in the work force).

Low pay – as an entrepreneur you can essentially, determine you own pay by you actions. A workers pay is determined not always based on merit (unless you work in commission, even then you’re getting a small piece of the pie), but on seniority.

It takes the control of your life out of your hands.

What does “risk” offer?

More control over the funds that come in, as well as what’s taken from you in the form of taxes (although the government needs to improve this).

Control over what you do with your life. So many spend their lives doing things they don’t like to do – essentially living a life they don’t want to live; what’s the point?

Risk offers a purpose.

Death is a magnificent thing: It gives your life, and this very moment, a very special and unique meaning. With each day you’re closer to the end. Each moment is one that will never be had again. Death should give you reason to risk, to try, to persist. To live a life spent doing what you hate doing, is a life lived in hell.

To risk nothing is to gain nothing.

In business, the greater the risk, the greater the room for gains. In the stock market that risk isn't always founded on sound principles, but a lot of time when you’re talking about growing a company, or even finding success in life, great risk leads to growth.

Any great accomplishment has been done so in the face of “safe logic”. They've gone with their gut rather than the path walked by those before them. They've forged a new path.

Have the courage to step out from the crowd. Break through the limitations that bind your mind to the life you’re living right now. You deserve something greater.

We Live in Scary Times

They say that the unemployment rate in America is at 8%, but that’s not counting all of the people who have simply given up. Some economists believe that unemployment is actually closer to 15%, and could reach up to 25% in the next decade.

The future isn't uncertain, it’s very certain that the jobs you hold now may not be there in a decade. What will you do then?

The safest thing a person can do is take matters into their own hands.
This may mean joining on with a start up, something that entails a lot more risk, but you typically need less education, you’re working for a company who’s making a difference, whose leaders are leading with passion and have a lot of skin in the game, and you’re innovating.

This may also mean starting your own company. The internet has given you endless possibilities to create what you want to create, to reach who you want to reach, and to help who you want to help.

The world needs new companies, leaders, and entrepreneurs if it’s going to survive this economic collapse. It needs leaders that hire, not drones that follow. The old dinosaurs are beginning to fade away, will you take their place?

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Rudeness on the rise in social media

Have you ever experienced Rudeness or nasty behavior Via your Social Media?

Ever check out your news feed on Facebook and seeing friends behaving badly?

Not surprisingly, what happens offline is happening online — even at an accelerated rate.

And online rudeness is spurring fights in real life.

Rudeness and throwing insults are cutting online friendships short with a survey released April 2013 that reveals people are getting ruder on social media.

The study says two in five social media users have ended contact after a virtual altercation.

As social media usage surges, the survey found incivility also has increased with 78 percent of 2,698 people reporting an increase in rudeness online with people having no qualms about being less polite virtually than in person
.

One in five people have reduced their face-to-face contact with someone they know in real life after an online run-in.

Joseph Grenny, co-chairman of corporate training firm VitalSmarts that conducted the survey, said online rudeness now often spill into real life with 19 percent of people blocking, unsubscribing or “unfriending” someone over a virtual argument.

“The world has changed and a significant proportion of relationships happen online but manners haven’t caught up with technology,” Grenny told Reuters on the release of the online survey conducted over three weeks in February 2013.

“What really is surprising is that so many people disapprove of this behavior but people are still doing it. Why would you name call online but never to that person’s face?”

The Pew Research Center show that 67 percent of online adults in the United States now use social networking sites with Facebook the most popular while the latest figures show over half of the British population has Facebook accounts.

The survey follows a spate of highly publicized run-ins between people who came to virtual blows online.

British football player Joey Barton, who plays for Olympique de Marseille, was summoned by the French soccer federation’s ethics committee after calling Paris St Germain’s defender Thiago Silva an “overweight ladyboy” on Twitter.

Boxer Curtis Woodhouse was widely praised after he tracked down a tweeter who branded him a “complete disgrace” and “joke” after a loss, going to his tormenter’s house for an apology.

Grenny said survey respondents had their own stories such as a family not talking for two years after an online row when one man posted an embarrassing photo of his sister and refused to remove it, instead blasting it to all his contacts.

Workplace tensions are also often tracked back to conversations in chat forums when workers talked negatively about another colleague.

“People seem aware that these kinds of crucial conversations should not take place on social media yet there seems to be a compulsion to resolve emotions right now and via the convenience of these channels,” said Grenny.

Grenny suggested peer-to-peer pressure was needed to enforce appropriate behavior online with people told if out of line.

He said three rules that could improve conversations online were to avoid monologues, replace lazy, judgmental words, and cut personal attacks particularly when emotions were high.

“When reading a response to your post and you feel the conversation is getting too emotional for an online exchange, you’re right! Stop. Take it offline. Or better yet, face-to-face,” he said.

Then how to combat the ill effects of online rudeness?

I advise individuals and professionals think twice about sharing a tweet or a post. If you have one, adhere to your company’s or organization’s social media guidelines.

But the highest standard I have to determine what to share on social media is my grandmother.

I ask myself this important question: What would my grandmother think?

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http://www.tednguyenusa.com/rudeness-on-social-media/

Build Your Small Business Brand by Avoiding These 5 Common Pitfalls

Some Great Advice from Meaghan McClellen


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Every business starts out with the hope of a bright future, but some companies just can’t build a solid reputation or overcome obstacles as they climb the ladder.

Building your company’s image, or branding, is as essential as the products or services you actually provide, and you’ll want to steer clear of these common mistakes.

 

Common Pitfalls of Branding

Offending Consumers

Crass humor, stereotyping and patronizing customers is rarely an effective branding method, but accidental offense is also avoidable. A diverse company and marketing team is one way to make sure you won’t step on any toes. In fact, if you can locate the consumers that the competition offends, you might find yourself a profitable niche.

Being Too Rigid

CEO of GoDaddy, the Web hosting and domain company, Bob Parsons, is a creative leader. Not only is he the one who came up with the idea of GoDaddy girls, but businessman Bob Parsons explained his advertising strategy in an interview with Inc Magazine, in which he said there was no real advertising budget. Bob Parsons simply open to opportunities, even ones that pop up at the last minute. Allowing yourself to roll with the punches is necessary. Others will want to work with you when you develop a reputation as flexible.

Poor Name Choice

Choosing the right name for your company comes before Web sites, marketing campaigns and printed materials. For many, their own name also represents the business. You may play on words or use industry ideals. Whatever your name, it must represent your company. Changing names at a later date is confusing and costly. Because you’ll use your company name in so many places, consider the following:

• Is it too long or short?
• Is it difficult to spell?
• Is it overly common like “John Smith”?
• Can you use it as a domain name? Who Represents might be a good business name but “whorepresents.com” is slightly less than ideal.

Test out your company name with friends, family and associates before you print it on your business cards.

Broken Promises

While your company might not be running to become President of the United States, you can learn something from the oversized branding that presidential hopefuls, and even winners, participate in. Political campaigns like Obama’s in 2008 involved a lot of big ideas, promises and hope. It was certainly the idea of “Yes we can” that helped to get Obama into the Oval Office, but then reality hit. Obama wasn't able to make every promise into a reality. Partisan arguing has led to a less effective socialized medicine law, for example, that still has some conservatives upset. Even when you do make good on your word, people will have something negative to say, so it’s best to only make promises that you can fulfill from the start.

Lack of Passion

What is causing your customers’ unhappiness? What issue can you solve for them? Once you answer those questions, advertising and branding falls right in place. The things that worry consumers and pull at their heart strings often encourage them to open their wallets, but if you lack emotion, you’ll miss this opportunity instead of empowering consumers. Furthermore, everyone wants to feel as though they’re talking to a real, live human being and not a computer. This is where showing emotion helps you stand out from the crowd.

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http://addicted2success.com/success-advice/the-10-biggest-small-business-startup-mistakes-how-you-can-avoid-them/

How to Make Money from Your Blog: 11 Powerful Case Studies

Jeff Bullas is probably one of the Best Bloggers our there. He is on the button with all Social Media and is quick of the mark with all new technologies and whats happening right Now! 


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This makes interesting reading - Jeff should know he has been blogging for several years now.

n 2005 a Greek American woman started a political blog. As the traffic grew more funding was required. This meant that in August 2006 the venture fund SoftBank Capital was called upon to invest $5 million into the site to hire more staff and to provide the resources needed to make the updates to feed the news cycle 24/7 as the site grew in popularity.

Two years later in November 2008, another $15 million was raised to maintain the momentum as the blog added more journalism resources and local reporting was ramped up across the USA.

The power of celebrity was embraced with politicians, academics and famous power brokers in all areas of business and industry contributing articles to the blog.

It was in June 2011 that the blog’s website traffic passed the doyen of traditional media, the “New York Times” for the first time.

“In just six years new media had disrupted 100 years of traditional media”

Seven years after the first post was published, it was sold to AOL for $315 million to add to its other online blog assets including Engadget, TechCrunch and MovieFone.

Today it’s website traffic is measured at over 77 million visitors per month.

That  blog is Huffington Post.

Tipping point

In the blogging world this was a watershed moment. Never before had so much money been paid for a blog.

New media is replacing and disrupting old media.

The old business model that made many media moguls billionaires and king makers was based upon the rivers of gold which were generated from classified ads. Today it is the website traffic that is creating the cash and the influence is moving online.

Huffington Post was purchased by AOL because of three key elements.

1. Its online and global influence
2. Advertising revenue
3.  Traffic

In one sense this new media is just a variation of old media except that it is online. It is still traffic, eyeballs and advertising.

It just happens to be digital.

The new media models

The new models are not so simple but multifaceted and convoluted. Making money from new media is not a singular approach but often a matrix of multiple opportunities and tactics.

Blogging has evolved rapidly because of the social web and in the past was driven by building email lists which took a lot of time. With the advent of social media their marketing and growth have been supercharged.

Global reach and influence at the speed of a tweet, a Facebook share or a viral video.

To make money from a blog in 2013 you do not have to be a Huffington Post. There are many ways to make a living out of blogging that can enhance your current business and lifestyle that are within everyone’s reach.

Let’s have a look at some of them.

1. Advertising

Just to show that the Huffington Post is not a one off, there are many blogs that generate significant revenue in then millions. One of those is Mashable.

Mashable’s model is based almost exclusively on building huge amounts of traffic that makes it an attractive platform for advertising. Current page views per month total approximately 50 million.  This also means producing a lot of content. To put that in perspective Mashable publishes dozens of articles a day to feed the content beast.

They work hard at optimizing their advertising and  have developed technology for:

• Infinite ad scrolling
• Story telling ads unit
• Content velocity algorithm

This blogging business model is becoming harder as advertising rates fall. But the rewards can be great with some reports that Peter Cashmore is worth nearly $100 Million US and the blog has been valued at over $200 million.

2. Sponsorship

Suzi Dafnis is the clever business brain behind a very successful blog that targets business women in Australia. It is called the Australian Business Women’s Network.  She must be doing something right! It has just won “Best Australian Blogs Competition” in the business Category.

Sponsorship is the main revenue source with sponsors including American Express, Optus and GoToWebinar.

3. Webinars and Seminars

Social Media Examiner was only started 4 years ago by Mike Stelzner and made its first million dollars within 12 months through paid online webinars. Mike (who by the way is one of the true gentlemen of the blogging world) has used his attention to detail, process and savvy business acumen to create a blog that is now ranked in the top 60 blogs in the world in just 48 months.

Mike knows how to shine the spotlight on others and hence they have returned the favour.

Prior to starting the Social Media Examiner blog Mike had run other blogs and businesses including one on how to “Write White Papers”. Mike has moved into producing conferences, with the recent success of the inaugural “Social Media Marketing World” in  San Diego.

If you want an insight into how he made his blog such a success I would recommend you read his book “Launch – How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition”

4. Speaking

Blogs can be the platform that makes you visible. This includes being invited to speak at conferences, workshops and seminars. Guy Kawasaki uses his blog as an online platform to promote his speaking and his books. 

Guy understands the importance of an online platform for building credibility and marketing his personal brand. He also understands the power of social media and has nearly 1.3 million Twitter followers

5. Books

Tim Ferriss is the author of  the New York Times best seller “The Four Hour Work Week”, which was about creating a success lifestyle in a web world. He has used his blog to launch not just one but three books after the huge success of his first book.

Tim uses his blog as his promotion platform for his books and for engaging and sharing his inspiration for experiments in lifestyle design.

6. Affiliate

Affiliate marketing  is the art of either selling other people’s products on your blog or getting affiliates to sell your products.  Brendon Burchard is one of many who have perfected this art and science.

One of the the key secrets to succeeding in this is building promotional partnerships with powerful online influencers and other bloggers who have significant followings online. Some of the pioneers in this space include Frank Kerns and Jeff Walker.

It can supercharge your revenue. For a further insight into how Brendon achieved success his book “Millionaire Messenger” is worth a read.

Another blogger and podcaster that understands how to use affiliate marketing to create revenue and is worth checking out is Pat Flynn, who is the force behind the blog “Smart Passive Income”

7. Consulting

Mark Schaefer is the force behind the awesome blog “Grow“. He uses his blog as his front door and shingle to his consulting, educating and training business that helps businesses grow by tapping into the marketing power of social media.

He is also the author of  several books including  ”Return on Influence” and “The Tao of Twitter”

8. Online Courses

Amy Porterfield is a blogger and a professional Facebook expert who has created and developed online training which is her main revenue stream. Her flagship course is Facebook  Training 101 – FB Influence. 

She understood the importance of her blog as the online portal to her online courses.

9. eBooks

Darren Rowse is the genius behind Problogger. Not only has he made that blog a business success but also started a Photography Blog called “Digital Photography School” with over 1 million subscribers . His eBooks on “blogging” and “photography” have become his main source of income

Darren makes money from his blog in 12 different ways. So making money from your blog is not just limited to one revenue stream. The challenge is working out how you can monetize with multiple channel sources.

10. Premium content – Paid Membership

Timothy Sykes blog is about how to make money on the stock market and his main source of revenue is by selling premium content which is accessed through paying to be a member on his site.

Premium content that is only accessible via monthly membership is a proven model and another one worth checking out is Psd.Tutsplus.com which is a resource and learning site for those who want to learn photoshop.

11. Sell Products

Tucker Max is a blog and brand that is memorable but maybe for all the wrong reasons. If hedonism is your thing then Tucker Max is is your man. He makes money from the blog in a variety of ways. The main source of income is selling his products on Amazon.

It highlights that even a bad image can be monetised. The creativity is up to you!

What about you?

As we have seen, blogging can  be both a business and an online portal to to express yourself. The challenge is deciding what you want it to be and how can you make it into a business and lifestyle that works for you.

So how do you make money from your blog? What types of revenue models attract you?

Look forward to hearing your stories in the comments below.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/14/how-to-make-money-from-your-blog-11-powerful-case-studies/#yo7T2VjHbuHuV6wu.99 

The 15 Success Principles You’ll Never Want To Forget

Some great advice from Joel @ Addicted2Success

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You can’t assure success, but you can increase the chances of it happening. After all, opportunity favors the prepared. With the following 15 success principles, you can dramatically increase the chances of success in your life.

Success Principles
 1 – Prepare

The first success principle is preparation. It’s the foundation of success. With preparation you create your own opportunities. Once you have all the different elements lined up, it only takes a small opening to realize your goal. At the same time, taking advantage of big opportunities without enough preparation means risking your success, as you’re building without a well-laid foundation.

2 – Do something you love

You have to work very hard whatever it is you choose to do. Your work or your project will dominate much of your time and your life. Therefore, find something that you enjoy doing and do that.

3 – Get started

You have to start somewhere. Today is as good a day as any to start. Get into action today and start moving in the direction you want. Putting it off can only lead to failure, whereas if you start and see an early setback, at least you conquered that setback early on.

4 – Move in the right direction

Keep everything moving in the direction you want. It doesn't matter if things go slowly initially. As long as the overall direction is favorable, you’ll get where you want to go eventually.

5 – Use the power of dreams and your imagination

What you dream and visualize today will become true tomorrow. You just have to work on turning it into reality. Just as your dreams can only influence your life if you let them, the cities you build in your imagination can only become real if you build them.

6 – Think big

If you set your aim a bit too high you might fall short. If you set your aim too low you might achieve your goal… and miss out on the other opportunities. By thinking bigger, the only limit is what is possible. You’re no longer limited by what you think is possible.

7 – Focus on growth

Seemingly impossible challenges are just cleverly disguised opportunities for growth. If you take those challenges and, in solving them, improve yourself, you’ll find yourself continually moving in the right direction.

8 – Maintain your determination

With enough determination, you can succeed through almost any odds. Enough determination means you’ll find a way no matter the situation.

9 – Set a clear vision

Think through where you’ll want to go. Develop a clear sense of what your final goal is, and keep this with you. By knowing the destination you want to reach, you can continually look at your current path and decide if it’s a route that will help you get where you want to go.

10 – Set goals along the way

A final goal isn’t enough. You need intermediate goals that set the path. These goals should be specific, measurable, realistic, attainable, and timely. These intermediate goals define the steps that you need to take to get to the final one.

11 - Work out plans of action for your work

For each goal, it helps to have plans to reach them. Your plan describes how you can reach each step from where you are, or where you will be. Keep in mind that the future is never certain. Things rarely work out exactly how you plan. Therefore, see these plans as showing one or more possible routes, not necessarily the route you’ll end up taking.

Still, knowing the plan means you can avoid long detours that might compromise your chances of reaching a goal on time — or at all.

12 - Commit to taking action

Once you start going, keep going. Never, never, never give up. If you find an obstacle in your way, chip away at it or go around it. The only way to really fail is to give up. If you keep going you’ll succeed. If you hit the limits of what’s possible, you can regroup and find another way.

13 - Use affirmations

Affirmations are just short, positive, and above all direct phrases in present tense. Things like “I’m getting more and more successful.” The idea is that they reinforce a positive world view. With affirmations, you are defining your own reality. By transmitting a positive world view to your mind, it adopts this view. As your mind adopts this view, it helps shape the world around you to fit it, which means it helps make the world around you one that reflects a reality of you getting more successful every day.

14 - Get rid of negative influences

Avoid harmful influences around you that might shake you from your goal. Keep people and ideas around you that support your success and your belief in yourself.

15 - Be grateful and appreciate what you have

The final success principle is to appreciate what you have already. Realize that — by sheer virtue of the fact that you can be reasonably certain you’ll live from one day to the next — you already have enough. Enjoy it! Appreciate what you've achieved so far, and see that what you want, where you’re going, is not what you need or what you must do. Rather, these are things and actions that will make your situation even better.

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