If you are happy owner of Amazon Kindle reader you can now read this blog on it.

It’s a digital information age and it’s a thrill to experiment with what’s possible especially when the entry bar is so low.

Enjoy reading Practice This on Amazon Kindle.

If the First Law Of Usability – Don’t Make Me Think, as outlined in the book Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug, so how do I design my pages for thoughtless (and streamlined) consumption? Krug advocates for visual hierarchy, conventions, breaking pages into areas, making clickables obvious, and minimizing noise.

Create Clear Visual Hierarchy

Krug writes:

Pages with a clear visual hierarchy have three traits:

1. The more important something is, the more prominent it is.
2. Things that are related logically are also related visually.
3. Things are “nested” to show what’s part of what

From my experience:

• Back in consulting practice I admired web pages that had clear hierarchy – it helped me to find priceless answers fast and solve customers problems in no time.

Take Advantages Of Conventions

Krug writes:

There are two important things to know about Web conventions":

1. They’re useful.
2. Designers are often reluctant to take advantage of them.

Innovate when you know you have a better idea (and everybody you show it says “Wow!”), but take advantage of you don’t.

From my experience:

• Back in consulting conventions on pages and common terms helped me quickly get onboard people and create common language in the group of people working together. When you have common language it is so much easier to carry out the messages and get folks onboard.

Break Pages Into Clearly Defined Areas

Krug writes:

Dividing the page into clearly defined areas is important because it allows users to decide quickly which areas of the page to focus an on which areas they can safely ignore.

From my experience:

• Put it simple, if I land on a page that has text only – no areas, no bullets, not subtitles, no nothing but text – I leave it the next second.

Make It Obvious What’s Clickable

Krug writes:

Since a large part of what people are doing on the Web is looking for the next thing to click, it’s important to make it obvious what’s clickable and what’s not.

From my experience:

• It is not uncommon I land on a page brought by a search engine but I cannot find what I need on it. Only spending couple of seconds by hovering over the object on the page I start to realize there are dynamic links that show and hide. Leaves bad taste in the mouth. I cannot care less about these visual effects – just give me the right link!

Minimize Noise

Krug writes:

One of teh great enemies of easy-to-grasp pages is visual noise. There are really two kind of noise:

1. Busy-ness.

Background noise.

From my experience:

• I like Google home page for its un-noise’ness. I like WIkipedia for the same reason. My eyes hurt when I land on the pages where I need to make them work hard to find meaningful information. Noise hurts.

image by laffy4k

The chapter maps key 9 building blocks of business model to a Long Tail pattern. As I was walking through the pattern and the mapping it looked natural for me to think about both blogging and consulting.

“Niche content providers (professional and /or user generated) are the KEY PARTNERS.“

Successful bloggers and consultants usually choose a narrow niche and they usually partner with like minded sharing their trade secrets at their level of partnership.

“The KEY RESOURCES is the platform; KEY ACTIVITIES include platform development and maintenance and niche content acquisition and production.”

Successful bloggers and consultants usually invest in enriching their foundation, the content they offer to their customers – either for premium or freemium.

“The main COSTS incurred cover platform development and maintenance.”

Successful bloggers and consultants are usually light on costy assets.

“The VALUE PROPOSITION of a Long Tail business model is characterized by offering a wide scope of “non-hit” items that may co exist with “hit” products. Long Tail business models may also facilitate and build on user-generated content.”

Successful bloggers and consultants are usually very niche’ish. They also get a lot of help from crowdsourced materials. This is how they scale. Network of in-depth niche offering usually creates most powerful and unmatched offerings.

“Long Tail business models focus on niche CUSTOMERS.“

…I’d rephrase it as “…focus on very specific needs.” Many regular customers would have such needs and they would gladly pay for content/service that provides priceless solution for their specific needs.

“Long Tail business model is based on aggregating small revenues from large number of items. REVENUE STREAMS vary; they may come from advertising, product sales, or subscriptions.”

Successful bloggers have usually multiple streams. Bloggers streams include multiple affiliation programs and many consultants have multiple clients. This helps making sure the revenue is balanced. If one program/customer stops being profitable it can be easily dropped and the efforts can be repurposed in finding the substitute while keeping healthy income.

Long Tail business models usually rely on the Internet as a CUSTOMER RELASHIONSHIP and/or  TRANSACTION CHANNEL.

Well… who doesn’t, eh?

image by krystian_o

  “I should be able to ‘get it’ – what it is and how to use it – without expending any effort thinking about it.”

If you are building products, offering services, or building web sites you better read a book  Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug. Indeed the more we make people think the more hurdles we set for them on their way to buying and using what we have to offer. I strongly believe that usability is a key competitive advantage especially in the era when the information and advice for a better product just click away. I like how Krug sets the stage by “demystifying” few facts of life – we do not read pages, we do not make optimal choices, and we don’t figure out how things work. I call it usage scenarios or patterns. Once you know the scenarios you can design your product or service that can be used frictionlessly.

We Scan Web Pages

Krug writes:

“One of the very few well-documented facts about Web use is that people tend to spend very little time reading most Web pages. Instead, we scan (or skim) them, looking for words or phrases that catch our eye.”

I can safely confirm that that’s the way I use the web. Back in consulting I used to work in under-the-fire mode, I needed priceless answers to customers’ tough questions fast. The cases I was successful is when I knew the answer (very rare cases) or I knew how to quickly find one that is hidden somewhere on the Web. Google rarely helped, it usually brought a lot of noise and I needed to work hard to find the needle in the haystack. The solution for me was to collect those gold info nuggets found on the Web into personal scannable knowledgebase.

We Search For The First Reasonable Option

Krug writes:

“… we choose the first reasonable option, a strategy known as stisficing. As soon as we find a link that seems like it might lead to what we are looking for, there’s a very good chance that we’ll click it.”

I think there are two key messages here:

• Provide list of options.
• Organize the options by relevancy to the task.

From my experience, most successful resources I used effectively and efficiently were those that organized content in simple lists categorized by tasks. I could easily jump to specific and relevant category and pick from a reasonable amount of options the one that seemed most optimal for the case at hand.

Muddling Through

Krug writes:

“Faced with any sort of technology, very few people take the time to read instructions. Instead, we forge ahead and muddle through, making up our own vaguely plausible stories about what we are doing and why it works.”

…and another one

"For most of us, it does not matter to us whether we understand how things work, as long as we can use them. It’s not for lack of intelligence, but lack of caring. In the great scheme of thing, it’s just not important to us."

Reflecting back on my consulting experiences I can perfectly remember times when I was brutally stopped when trying to explain how things work. I was directly demanded to show how to make it work! No one could care less about under-the-hood stuff. But everyone cared to get things done and go home early.

image by Evil Erin

by zedzap

Bloggers’ eyes are at strains as blogging requires tons of reading. Especially it is painful for part time bloggers as they do it at night when the light is less than optimal.

The result is pretty expected – at some point bloggers prescribed to wear eyeglasses.

That is exactly what happened to me a year ago at age of 36. While almost everyone tells me the glasses suit me I admit it is a pain – physical and logistical [and financial].

William H. Bates shares practical techniques to improve eyesight in his book The Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses. I adopted 3 of them as they seemed to me something I can stick and practice for a long period of time.

Resting the Eye

Bates writes:

The simplest way to rest the eye is to close the for a longer or shorter period and think about something agreeable. This is always the first thing to do, and there are very few people who are not temporarily benefitted by it.

Nothing seems scientific here, right? It is very natural to close eyes and give it a rest for sometime. Now ask yourself, how many times you do it throughout the day?

Here is the plan – allocate 5 minutes each reading hour to close your eyes and give it a rest.

Palming

Bates writes:

A still greater degree of rest can be obtained by closing and covering the eyes so as to exclude all the light… When you can palm perfectly you will see a field so black that it is impossible to remember, imagine, or see, anything blacker , and when you are able to do this yours sight will be normal.

Light is what helps and hurts our eyes, when at rest it’s best when no light is felt at all. Palming helps me.

Sun Treatment

Bates writes:

Sun is as necessary to normal eye as is rest and relaxation. If it is possible, start the day by exposing the closed eyes to the sun. Just few minutes at a time will help.

I must admit – I feel most productive in the morning. Now I clearly understand it is because I read and write with sun light that makes reading much easier and fun.

Practice This – Get Results

Blogger, improve your eyesight with these simple practices:

• Give your eyes a rest by simply closing it and palming.
• Let sun heal your eyes – expose your closed eyes to the sun.
• Read The Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses for more practices and the explanations why it works.

My Related Posts

• Consultant Substitutes Leisure For Labour
• Close Your Eyes And See Bigger Picture

by mollypop

What does it take to change the world? What does it take to change self? What does it take to make others change?  These questions seem completely different. Aren’t they? At first they might. But not after reading the book Influencer: The Power to Change Anything.

In the book  I learned practical and simple pattern of making change, be it little or global.

Change – The Master Plan

The authors of the book offer simple scheme for making change happen:

	Motivation	Ability
Personal	Make the undesirable desirable	Surpass your limits
Social	Harness peers pressure	Find strength in number
Structural	Design rewards and accountability	Change the Environment

I like the breakdown and it seems very reasonable and common sense to me.  Here is my interpretation of this scheme:

• Personal: Want to surpass your limits? – Make the undesirable desirable
• Social: Want to multiply your strength? – Harness peers peers pressure.
• Structural: Want to make the change? – design reward and accountability.

Sounds good to me, the question is How?

J.D. helped me with his distillation from the book and related training:

• Six Sources of Influence
• Influencer Training Day 1.
• Influencer Training Day 2.

Make My Teammates Want Blogging Plan

Publishing on corporate blog should help market our services we sell. As a consultant I have sympathy to this, nothing more. I am technical consultant – not a marketing guy. So in fact I do not really care about it. If marketing guys suck then fire them and hire better ones, right? No!

On other hand blogging became a serious marketing weapon lately. It’s power lays in offering value, not marketing high level stuff. It’s hard for me to imagine a marketing guy blogs about how to solve specific problem – something consultant lives and breathes. Are we in the dead end? Not sure.

How do you motivate a consultant to start blogging? WIIFM [What’s In It For Me], right? What’s in corporate blogging for a consultant? Nothing, unless it helps him grow personally. And if it helps him grow personally efficiently he is hooked, right?

My plan is simple – motivate consultant to surpass his limits by helping him to unleash a blogger inside. If I help a consultant to deal efficiently with the following issues I think there is a chance.

• How to find time for blogging?
• How to quickly find the topic to blog about
• How to quickly write the post?
• How to quickly weed out less important stuff and leave only the meat?
• How to write scannable posts that people like reading/scanning/bookmarking?
• How to enjoy from blogging?

What’s your take?

Practice This – Get Results

• Connect on personal level, identify WIIFM – motivate, do not dictate
• Offer value – it’s the currency of Influence Without Authority
• Share efficient techniques – everyone loves getting more with less.

My Related Posts

• Single Step Toward A Journey Of Thousand Blog Posts
• Check Point For Aspiring Blogger
• From Part Time Aspiring Blogger To Marketing Top Gun
• From Flash Fiction To Flash Blogging

 
by emdot

I speak 3 languages and each one has a saying that goes along the lines:

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. – Lao-tzu

What’s the simplest single step you can take to jump start massive blogging?

Here is my take.

Create a high level architecture and design of your blog posts. In this post I share a collection of practical resources that helped me publishing consistent content on my blogs.

Post Title

Think of the Title that should be both SEO and human friendly. Daniel Levis offers 10 Winning Headline Formulas … :

1. The “How To” headline: How to Avoid the Flu this Year, Guaranteed!
2. The “How” headline: How This 57-Year-Old Nurse Works With Coughing, Wheezing, Sneezing People all Day Long and Never gets Sick — Not Even During Flu Season …
3. The “Why” headline: Why Flu Shots Are a Bad Idea for Most People …
4. The “What” headline: What Never to Eat When You Have The Flu …
5. The “Where” headline: Where Flu Germs Cluster And How to Avoid Them …
6. The “Question” headline: Are These Common Flu Medicines Safe for Your Family? TIP: Never ask a yes or no question. Make it impossible to answer the question without reading the copy.
7. The “Numbered” headline: Three Delicious Veggies That Boost Your Immune System and Keep The Flu Bug Away …
8. The “One and Only” headline: The Easiest Way to Stay Flu-Free This Winter …
9. The “Irony” headline: Respected Doctor Says “Leave Your Hat and Mitts at Home and You’ll Never Catch the Flu”
10. The “Who” headline: Who Can You Trust When It Comes to Flu Fighting Vitamins?

Blog Post Templates

Create blog post template and follow it when writing the post. Chris Knight offers Article Templates = Blueprints to Success:

1. Traps and How to Escape Them
2. Things to Do
3. Top 7 Tips
4. Golden Rules
5. Pain Avoidance
6. Checklist
7. Principles of X
8. The Pros and Cons
9. I Love

Test Yourself

After you finished writing, test your work. Make sure you offer value to your readers. Skellie shares How to Avoid Fools Gold and Create Value-packed Content:

1. It doesn’t alleviate problems a little — it solves them.
2. It doesn’t make your readership think about doing things differently — it changes the way they act.
3. It’s audacious — it tries to do many things at once.
4. It expresses something your target audience didn’t already know.
5. It answers a question your target audience didn’t know how to ask.
6. It makes your target audience feel better about themselves.
7. It helps them move towards whatever they’ve defined as their ’success’.

Practice This – Get Results

• Create SEO and human friendly titles – attract traffic.
• Create post templates – follow simple procedures and save time when writing.
• Test your work – make sure you deliver value to your readers, build trust.

 
by MissTurner

Personal development books seem to follow a well-defined structure. Knowing the structure is helpful when you want to distill practical nuggets. After all, that is the main reason you read such books in first place, no? You want to efficiently distill nuggets of effectiveness.

After reading quite a few books on personal development I have a feeling that these three follow the pattern:

• The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
• The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith and  Mark Reiter

The basic ingredients are failure story, credibility, problem/myth, solution approach, success story.

Tell A story – Hook The Reader

The first part usually describes a fellow who tries hard to succeed but repeatedly fails. The purpose of this part is to make  a connection with the reader, to intrigue him, to hook him. The most important skill here is storytelling. It is essential to tell a story that will speak to the reader’s heart. The author picks the persona that represents his target audience and he builds the story around it. It’s easy that way for the story to resonate with readers.  This enhances the odds that people stay engaged and actually finish the book. 

Street Credentials – I Have Been Around

Once the reader is hooked by the failure story he needs an answer:  “Sounds like I have similar problem. How can I solve it?“. The reader wants not just an answer, he wants the answer from the guy who’s been around – the one who knows, the maven. One great way to establish your credibility is by listing wins with high profile names: Google, Microsoft, GM, US Government, etc.

Failures, Problems, Myths, Disappointments

At this point the reader is completely hooked.  He has a similar problems and the author has proven solutions. The author continues with other failure patterns, thus paving the path for providing additional solutions in subsequent chapters. To fill a 200-page book, he must first provide context. This is done by characterizing the problems for which the solutions are designed to solve.

In my consulting practice I call these latent requirements. Many customers call me onsite for one reason yet they appreciate it when I provide additional insights outside the context of the original problem.

Why Failure Happens – The Broken Rules

Naturally the reader asks a simple question – “Why do all these failures happen? What’s the reason?” At that point the author explains that there are basic rules that were broken. He lists the cases cited earlier and for each one describes the rule being broken. This happens in no particular order.  What’s important here is that the author prepares the reader for the main part or the book – the rules of success.

Follow The Rules To Succeed

This is the raison d’être of the book. Here the author lays the prescriptive guidance, the practical rules. The message is clear – “You have seen many failures. It happens when fundamental rules are broken. I made it to the top, I am successful, I am the one in the know, and I will show you the rules that worked for me. Follow the rules and you will make it to the top too.”

Inspire The Reader – Tell Success Story

“Whoa! What a ride! So much to learn and try out. But hey… does it really work? Can you show me? Can you walk me through your success so I can feel it?” The author happily does so, calling out each rule and how it contributes to success. This convinces the reader in author’s authenticity. It inspires him to implement the rules right away. Success awaits!

Practice This – Get Results

If you write a personal development book (or a blog post)  consider following this pattern:

• Tell a story that speaks to reader’s heart – hook the reader.
• Show your street credentials – make the reader believe you are in the know, make him trust you. 
• Tell more failure stories – create plenty of room for solutions.
• Explain why the failures happen – make the reader want your rules list.
• Offer the rules – the reader should be well prepared for them.
• Tell a success story – create a mental image of success. Inspire the reader to follow your rules.
• Read a personal development book – you have nothing to lose

Editor in chief – Jimmy May

My Related Posts

• From Flash Fiction To Flash Blogging
• Writing A Book – Proven Practices
• Blog Post Templates – New And Improved Plugin For Windows Live Writer [FREE]

How ironically, in my day job I am software security [and performance] engineer.

That taught me a lesson that I want to share with you.

Contact Your Hosting Services Provider I am hosting my blog with www.BlueHost.com. They offer very good technical support – registered accounts like myself can open either Service Tickets (SR) or start off immediate chat with technical support representative. I decided to fire up a chat client with their rep after observing this image on my home page: The www.Bluehost.com rep quickly verified my identity and then following my request disabled totally the access to www.PracticeThis.com. I preferred to not serve my readers at all vs. serving bogus content instead. Rollback The Latest Backup www.Bluehost.com offers flexible backs up system. Most recent backup was from April 12 2009, so I asked to restore it. That is the reason some comments on the blog are not shown – they were submitted after that date. Dear loyal commenters, sorry for that. I also needed to republish my recent post – What Your Kid Knows About Creativity – as it was published after the latest back up. Subscribers might have received the content twice. Sorry about that – I have not meant to be annoying that much. Re-Configure Security Settings Following the advice from the technical support at Bluehost.com I changed my passwords. I also, changed moderation policy. In “Comment Moderation” section I have changed it to “Hold a comment in the queue if it contains 1 or more links” (the default setting was 2). This configuration can be found in Settings->Discussion section of WordPress administration. I have my take on how my site was exploited which is way beyond the theme of this blog. Ping me via contact form if you are interested to hear the details. Share Your Security Practices What’s your experience with security for WrodPress? What have you done to strengthen the security of your blog? Related Materials WordPress Security Issues Lead To Mass Hacking. Is Your Blog Next? WP Security Scan

]]> http://practicethis.com/protect-your-blog-or-get-hacked-like-practicethiscom-was/feed/ 36 http://practicethis.com/my-favorite-flickr-images-for-blogging/ http://practicethis.com/my-favorite-flickr-images-for-blogging/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:45:00 +0000 alik levin http://practicethis.com/2009/03/20/my-favorite-flickr-images-for-blogging/ This post is inspired by J.D. Meier’s Win the Heart the Mind Follows. J.D. advocates using images in blog posts. I am 100% with J.D.
by topgold
I am using flickr’s images with Creative Commons license when composing my blog posts. I started using flickr images after reading  A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images. In this post I am sharing my favorite images that might work for you too. Each image is placed next to the corresponding post – do you feel the emotional connection between the topic and the image?

Daddy’s Under Extreme Stress – No Mommies Allowed by gotplaid? Remarkable Marketing By Seth Godin by ArtNow314 Consultant Arrives To Base Camp by Spigoo Check Point For Aspiring Blogger by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com Creatures Of Logic And Creatures Of Emotion by Steven Fernandez Best Kept Secret Of Successful Consulting – Model The Best by striatic Consultants, Beware Of Procrastinators, Disengaged, And Distracters! by scalespeeder Consulting – What’s The Deal? by Mykl Roventine Become The Next Great Mind – Now by apesara 3 Things Customers Really Want by striatic Fear No Recession – Surpass Your Career Potential by laurenatclemson Dale Carnegie’s Recipe For Effective Public Speaking   by Victor Bezrukov Effective Time Management With Vista Sidebar by sekido John Wooden’s 12 Lessons In Leadership [For Kids] by Swaity Make Your Message Sticky And You Might Tip by Or Hiltch Basic Skills For Effective Public Speaking by s-t-r-a-n-g-e Experience Is The Most Valuable Product by Clearly Ambiguous 3 Easy Steps To Become A Superhero by Xurble Personal Development Lifecycle by Pixelsior Glue Audience To Your Presentation With ZoomIt by karynsig Find Your Strengths, Know Your Life Purpose by s-t-r-a-n-g-e

]]> http://practicethis.com/my-favorite-flickr-images-for-blogging/feed/ 17 http://practicethis.com/remarkable-marketing-by-seth-godin/ http://practicethis.com/remarkable-marketing-by-seth-godin/#comments Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:38:40 +0000 alik levin http://practicethis.com/2009/03/06/remarkable-marketing-by-seth-godin/ I found this TED talk by Seth Godin when I was reading Sheila’s Newbie Lifeline blog.
Seth talks about remarkable marketing, ideas that spread, and TV-complex that does not work any more. Seth  shares few case studies  
by ArtNow314

and he unveils where he wants to go next – the middle of nowhere. Let me share here few notes I have taken and how it relates to  my aspirations.

• “Ideas That Spread, Win”. This one makes tons of sense, the question is who do you create the ideas that spread? I think the answer is Make Your Message Sticky And You Might Tip
• “TV Marketing Is Not Working Anymore”. At least for me it is too true. I do not watch TV, I do not listen to the news on radio, I do not read newspapers. I shield myself from massive media intentionally. It helps me focusing so that I can Program Myself For Extremely Fast Performance
• “I Ignore Because I Do Not Care”. I think the idea here is that the push model related to mass media marketing is dead (see previous bullet), pull model rocks. RSS rules. What I care I subscribe, the rest is out of my radar. I tune my radar to something I can learn from since  Learning Capability Is Your Core Competitive Advantage
• “Purple Cow Is Remarkable”. Too true, but at some point all cows become purple and lose its remarkableness. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect” – Mark Twain Quotes – Motivation Super Power (WARNING – Addicting)
• “Market To Those Who Care”. YEAH! Find your customer that fits your vision and become his superhero, here is how – 3 Easy Steps To Become A Superhero
• “Very Good Is Average, It’s Not Gonna Work”. Cannot argue with this – only highest quality matters. Grow Quality – Not Quantity

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it. “ – Thomas A. Edison

Got more ideas of how to be remarkable? Share!

I like this transparency (despite my software security background). I actually massively use it when I research others. I also use it when doing research on myself.

Recently I discovered www.wordle.net that helps analyzing words on the web sites. It creates word clouds. A  word cloud is a great way to visually demonstrate the focus of the web site, it also helps demonstrating the lack of focus…

PracticeThis.com

I have ran it on this blog – www.PracticeThis.com. It’s clear I have been focused on Consulting recently:

I thought this is a good time to step back and reflect on what I publish here. It’s time to reflect on my main categories which are:

• Blogging
• Career
• Consulting
• Entrepreneurship
• Influence Without Authority
• Leadership
• Motivation
• Parenting
• Physical
• Time Management

I’ve tried this technique on blogs I like reading with the following results:

SourcesOfInsight.com

JD at www.SourcesOfInsight.com is focused on Problems solving. He seem to be in the Know about getting Results, and that is by asking the right Questions:

JD, was I right?

Jimmy, Editor In Chief

My good friend, Jimmy (Aspiring Geek), who’s also contributing his effort as an editor for www.PracticeThis.com is crazy about Performance for SQL Server. he is a fan of Incremental Results and he preaches Improvement Engineering Practices over mere Perception.

WritingForward.com

Melissa at www.WritingForwaard.com does lots of Exercises in Fiction Writing focusing on Character.

Melissa, what do you say?

DreamBuilders.com.au

Liara at blog.dreambuilders.com.au is here for Spiritual Presence, her Experiences open the Door to People Awareness and Beyond.

Liara, was I right?

ImperfectAction.com

Giovanna at www.imperfectaction.com seems to be a huge fan of Warren Buffet. Giovanna likes taking Action, sometimes Imperfect, to make Better Connections with People.

Giovanna, how’s the analysis?

MarkSalinas.com

Mark at blog.marksalinas.com likes Juice and he does Exercises like Jumping for Strengthening his Back and his Knees.

Enduringwanderlust.com

Gennaro at http://www.enduringwanderlust.com/ is in love with Paris, he is about Travel, and he relates to Buddhist[sm]

Gennaro, I usually refrain from discussing politics and religion .

Summary

I guess you got the idea.

I apologize if I have not included your blog – nothing personal, I love reading your blog.

I am curious about your techniques for online research?

My Related Posts

• Check Point For Aspiring Blogger
• From Part Time Aspiring Blogger To Marketing Top Gun
• From Flash Fiction To Flash Blogging

Editor in chief – Jimmy May

It is simple to follow and easy to validate. You should find it useful too.

Visual Design

As the rule of thumb I try to keep the design very lean and not busy. I model the best – www.copyblogger.com. The theme is here for free download.  My goal is to let the reader land on my page and feel easy. No flashy stuff, let alone popups demanding for subscription. There is also good article I recommend on DBT – Q&A: What Is Essential On A Blog? Must admit, I missed the “Contact” page recommendations.Tess at  The Bold Life was kind enough to remind me. Done.

Unique Voice

Millions of blogs are out there. Why me? I have tested my blog from marketing perspective -  From Part Time Aspiring Blogger To Marketing Top Gun. Ask these six simple questions and get an idea of how appealing you are (think of your blog as of a product).

• Who are you advertising to?
• What does your product do for them?
• Why is it superior to alternative products?
• How can you prove your case?
• Where should you advertise to reach prime prospects?
• When is the best time to reach them?

Content

The number one advice for better blog is content, no black magic. They say it should be valuable. “Valuable” for me is

• Easy to read – From Flash Fiction To Flash Blogging
• Easy to practice – Practice This – Values, Mission, Vision
• Sticky message - Make Your Message Sticky And You Might Tip

I practice the basic guidelines for valuable content from Skellie – How to Avoid Fools Gold and Create Value-packed Content

Traffic

There are really only few “tricks” to drive traffic:

• SEO.  SEO Primer: Improve Your Business Website’s Ranking
• Guest posting. [my next big move]
• Commenting. [proven to be very effective]

Got more ideas? – Share!

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. – Mark Twain

Do you blog for a purpose? I blog for a purpose. What’s your purpose? Here is my Vision:

Practice This is place where like-minded individuals share and discuss their practices about personal growth, achievement, and balance.

The question is – how do I market my blog to hit my goals? Am I on track?  I found a guidance on how to check it in 6 Little Words That Boost Your Sales. 

In the post Gary Bencivenga writes

Journalists call this the “5W1H” formula for investigating any subject. It’s quite useful in marketing. For example:

• Who are you advertising to?
• What does your product do for them?
• Why is it superior to alternative products?
• How can you prove your case?
• Where should you advertise to reach prime prospects?
• When is the best time to reach them?

Who are you advertising to?

My blog is targeted to all those who seek to achieve more with less effort. There are many techniques out there to get things done. I am after those who seek to accomplish more with less. See? I care about folks who care to accomplish more, not to get done more. There is a huge difference between doing and achieving. See the difference?

What does your product do for them?

On my blog I share practices I personally apply in life and work. The practices that get me results – I achieve more than same me-like guy.

Practice This offers simple practices that were actually used and proven as working. By working I mean the practices help to achieve more with less effort.

Why is it superior to alternative products?

Actually I do not like this question too much though it is OK. Competition is the reality of life. But I am more after becoming the best I can vs. becoming better then the competition.

Anyway, these are worth mentioning:

• My blog has clean, not busy theme. You should land smoothly and start reading conveniently.
• The content is formatted in the way it is easy to scan in order to get an idea of a practice in question.
• Each post offers self check questions or guidance. That way it is easy to make a decision whether the practice is applicable to the reader.

How can you prove your case?

Here are few results I achieved in my work and life by applying the practices I share on my blog:

• I am able to publish 10 posts weekly on my blogs.
• I hit my goals at work and exceed it.
• My manager and my customers happy with the service I offer (backed by periodic formal feedback I get from both).
• I breath with full chest. I am not chasing fire alarms anymore.
• Each morning I take my kids to school.
• Three days a week I get home by 17:00. My workweek extremely rarely exceeds 40 hours.
• Last year I have read more than 25 books – more than in my whole life (*blush*).

Where should you advertise to reach prime prospects?

It depends on what practice is discussed. I have not done it massively but that’s the plan. The plan is to start guest posting on relevant web sites and top blogs:

• Daily Blog Tips – on blogging. 
• Zen Habits – on personal effectiveness.
• Copyblogger – on how teaching sells.
• www.articlesbase.com
• www.EzineArticles.com
• www.Goarticles.com

Got more ideas where to guest post? Want me to guest post on yours?

When is the best time to reach them?

My prospects, the readers, aren’t you always online?
I know you are – that is why I post daily.

Check Point

• Am I on track toward becoming marketing top gun?
• Are you?
• What do I need to improve to make my blog your favorite place to hang out?

Help me to become the better me, I cannot do it only by using Google Analytics.

“No great marketing decisions have ever been made on quantitative data”

My Related Posts

• 3 Things Customers Really Want
• Ask Your Customers’ Friends – Your Growth Hides There

My take is – Flash Blogging.

In Flash Your Fiction: Writing Exercises, Melissa at Writing Forward shares an interesting writing technique – Flash Fiction. She writes:

…go through the story one last time removing as much as you can without making the piece unintelligible. A traditional example is:

Boy meets girl. Boy gets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy wins girl back.

Of course, this is an oversimplified example, but it certainly gives you an idea of just how much a story can be broken down into its basic movements

That is exactly what I need – adapt Flash Writing to Flash Blogging.

I am using templates when I write my blog posts. It helps me keep my post idea clear and reduce distractions to the minimum.

Boy Meets Girl

When a boy meets a girl it is about excitement. This is how I start my posts – it must be an excitement, a hook. Usually it is a question or a strong statement. My post is the boy and you, the reader, are the girl. What makes you feel the excitement?

• Asking a question. “Have you ever though to quit blogging?” or “Feel exhausted? Drained?” or “Would you like to be an A-List blogger?”.
• Taking a strong position. “Quit blogging now!” or “All bloggers are hard workers, no wonder they are exhausted and drained” or “To become an A-List blogger you must follow these three steps:…”

Boy Gets Girl

Dear reader (the girl), I (the boy) want to win your heart!

After the first line I assume you are hooked. Now I need to connect with you. To do so I answer my question or elaborate a bit on the stand I have taken in the beginning. This should translate the excitement into a connection, preferably an emotional connection. Can you feel the connection between us? Have I got you?

Boy Loses Girl

Now you are mine, I’ve got you. You are excited, connected. You are reading my stuff.

Having fun? NO?!?!??! Am I loosing you? Am I boring you?

To reduce the chance of losing you (the girl) I (the boy) try writing punchy and with less elaboration – straight to the point of the idea I want to convey. I also format my posts with subtitles and bullets to allow you scan my post without even reading it line by line.

In the end of the post when I am sure you are bored and the chance of losing you is the highest, I add some credibility by adding a relevant quote from someone famous. All in the name of love. Our love. But…

There’s more to love than boy meets girl – Jimmy Somerville

Boy Wins Girl Back

Oh… you are back! Happy me !

You came again, you want to read more posts from me? That is huge! You even recommended me to your friends? – Awesome! Seems like the technique works, doesn’t it?

Practice This – Get Results

• Ask question up front or take a stand – hook me up.
• Give me the whole idea of the post in the first two lines – do not make me work hard to fall in love with you. This way you get me quick.
• Elaborate, offer some new techniques that work – do not bore me with just prose.
• Format your posts with subtitles, bullets, and bold type – do not make me work hard to keep loving you.

My Related Posts

• Blog Post Template Plugin For Windows Live Writer
• Boost Your Blogging Productivity With Post Templates

image by { pranav }

Lessons Learned from Jack Canfield

Success is a combination to a lock.  You need to find what works for you.

7 Stage Names That Spell Success:

These seven pseudonyms will propel you to the top of the charts quicker than a Wesley Snipes movie goes straight to DVD.

Alice Walker: Barack Obama’s Primary Responsibility is Happiness. Is she right?

…success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone

Baby Steps and New Year’s Resolutions

“hey, I’m doing it again!”

It is All About Humanity- New Year’s Resoultions for a Better World

Remember that if you succeed getting to the top you will be alone at the top- that is not success. If we do things together what a party we will have on top together!

It’s a Magical World

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are
doing, you will be successful.”–Albert Schweitzer

 

Success and the Subtle Something

Success is defined as how much we triumph and prosper in fame, fortune or happiness, while we are travelling on our lifelong Journey, even though we may face obstacles and adversity.

Success in life is not a destination; it is a part of the Journey.

How To Measure Success

“The standard of success in life is not the money or the stuff – the standard of success is absolutely the amount of joy you feel”.

What Does Success Mean to You?

Realize that ‘successful’ is not something that we do, it’s something we become. First we become successful on the inside, in our minds, and then we can become successful on the outside.

Meditation – It’s Not What You Think!

My first great success was with one of these simple guided meditations. WOW! I actually “left my body” and connected to my higher power, it was so…well, POWERFUL.

Is Your Attitude Bringing You Towards Success?

Successful people are the people who are not satisfied with being mediocre.

Natural Ability

In my opinion true success is a measure of your progression towards an ideal outcome.

The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success

“Success in life could be defined as the continued expansion of happiness
and the progressive realization of worthy goals.
Success is the ability to fulfill your desires with effortless ease.“
- Deepak Chopra.

Raising a Baby Blog: What Does Your Blog Want to Be When It Grows Up?

If someone stops by, and listens and learns a little something, then my post has been successful. Success is the name of the game, no matter how you measure it.

Success: Consistently Living With Purpose

Success: Consistently living with purpose.

What We Learn From Winning

To be successful in life, we need to get the basics down, as well.  Things that we practice over and over, learning the basics of life.  Things like manners, personal care, love, …  Things that will endure.

The Secret Business Success Formula

F + T (-DC + R) = YB +MLH x MP or MC.

Outliers – 10,000 Hours for Success

In conclusion, the more you practice your craft–whatever it may be–, the more you create, and the more ideas you come up with, the more likely you are to be successful.

Me in Climb John Wooden’s Pyramid Of Success – Take An Assessment.

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable”  – John Wooden.

What’s your definition of Success?

• How to get a dollar from 1,000,000 people? – Give a value of 100 dollar to 1,000,000 people and ask for a dollar.
• Wealth is a mindset. 
• Don’t keep your best ideas secret. This one resonates a lot with what Gerry M. Weinberg writes in his Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully.
• Move the free line. Give away more value to attract more customers.
• How to name things? - Use phonological loop. “Coca-Cola”, “Robert De Niro”, “Motorola”, “Palm Pilot”, “Blackberry”, “Windows Vista”.

Hey! Look what I found – Eben Pagan’s Marketing Tips Takeaway Points

Putting it in practice

• Create new name for your product. Use phonological loop. It must be catchy. Make it sticky.
• Think of something very cool you practiced for years and it gave you results. Something value packed. Give it away. Free.
• Ask for one dollar. A million times.

Worked?

I found few resources that seem to me effective and actionable.

by _StaR_DusT_

100 Days To Done

How to write a novel in 100 days or less offers day-by-day instructions of writing a book. If you follow it day-by-day you will have a written book after 3 months. These are simple yet powerful insights I liked the most:

• Carve time.
• Make it fun.
• Analyze similar book and break it down and outline.
• Think small, deep meaning.
• Imitation leads to originality.
• Write down stuff even if it leads nowhere, keep it.
• Write about something I love.
• Start writing about I know.
• Pick characters first.

Microsoft Patterns and Practices Team’s Approach

J.D. Meier, a program manager in Microsoft patterns & practices team shares his approach of writing technical guidance books in his Building Books in Patterns and Practices. It is pretty detailed blueprint for writing high impact books. My favorite quotes are:

• Solution Engineering.  This captures the heart of what we do.  Rather than "writing a book", we’re really engineering solutions for problems.  That’s why the team includes architects, testers, developers … etc.
• Holistic Over Piecemeal.   The guides are meant to get you up and running.  The example I use is teaching you to drive.  I show you how to forward, reverse, steer, brake, shift to get you going and then drill into shifting or braking as needed, rather than show you how to go forward today, then how to reverse another day, and some day how to steer.  This means compressing and distilling knowledge that’s been spread out over time and space.

J.D.’s "Solution engineering" resonates a lot with what Tim Ferriss stressed when he was interviewed by Leo:

“Focus on making yourself a credible expert vs. pushing a book. ”

Self Test

Ask questions, make an assignment, intrigue the reader.

• Do you want to write a book?
• Do you follow proven practices or second guess?
• How do you know the practices are proven?

If you do want to enrich your content with music Jamendo is for you.

What’s Jamendo?

When you sign up go directly to Frequently Asked Questions where the first thing you will notice is this:

Jamendo offers free access and free download of music tracks, published with Creative Commons licences. On Jamendo, the Artists choose to give access to their music for free to the users.

Does It Work – Blogging?

I was doing a screencast for my Blog Post Template Plugin For Windows Live Writer that helps Boosting Your Blogging Productivity With Post Templates. I like music on one hand but I try to be a good online citizen and not using content – including music – without permission. I needed Music under CC license. After few searches I stumbled on Jamendo. This is the screencast I produced in the end using the music from Jamendo – tell me, does the music add to the experience or better off prefer to hear my broken English?

Video: Blog Post Template Plugin for Windows Live Writer

music by Zeropage – Ambient Pills — Jamendo – MP3 VBR 192k – 2006.09.19 [www.jamendo.com]

Does It Work – Personal Use?

Let me tell you upfront – IT DOES. I downloaded few albums and I listen to it regularly with great pleasure. Go ahead and sign up – the offer is really good, it is FREE. Free to listen, free to use.

Self Test

• Do you like free stuff?
• Do you like music?
• Do you like free music?
• Do you blog?
• Do you want to get ahead of the crowd with better reader’s experience?
• Do you want me to show you how I create screencasts like the one above with free tools?