I started this post on February 19th. That’s right—nearly a month ago. The irony in that is that the very things I was talking about, such as focusing on your life plan and having a lifestyle business, happened to me. My daughter, the light of my life, got a serious respiratory illness and I had to stop working for a week to take care of her. Then, my husband had knee surgery, and I had to care for him. To top it all off, well, let’s just say we got a little surprise that will be showing up around Halloween sometime, and I’m finding myself so tired and nauseated that working has been difficult for a few weeks. The importance of these events is that I didn’t quit my "regular job" to work from home (and to be with my family more) just to make the people in my life take a back seat to work. What I did was create a true "lifestyle business", employment that would be flexible enough to be second to those that really matter in my life.
- Art of Quitting
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In this feature for StartupNation, I take you through a bounty of tactics for marketing your website. - Planning for a Website
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Chris Anderson from Wired Magazine shares his theories about the changing strategies of business. - MBA by Blog
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The founder of Squidoo has some takes on marketing ethics that I just love. - StartupNation
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Rob May reflects back on how the past 5 years have changed his business thinking. - From 0 to 2000+ Subscribers in 90 Days
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Rob May reflects on the experiences and lessons learned from blogging over the years. - How to Use Twitter - Tips for Bloggers
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What not to do with your business blog. - Death to Procrastination: Use the 4-day win to get your goals moving
Martha Beck thinks you can get anything done if you can break it down into a 4-day action plan. - Ten Laws for Better E-mail
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Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category
A True "Lifestyle Business"
Less, Part 2: Noise
I dropped the ads from my site.
In the end, it had nothing to do with the aesthetics or the influence, but with clarity. I simply felt the ads were distracting me from my true, internal reasons for having this site, and I couldn’t let that happen. The ads were removed, my purpose for this site has been reaffirmed, and all order has been restored.
Which brings me back to my continued goal of Less for 2008: Less Noise. By taking the time to reflect on my true goals and eliminate outside influences in my decision, I came up with the right decision for me—and that is what "less noise" is all about.
Is Money the Root of All Evil? (Writing with Purpose)
I have been writing in this blog for just about a year, and I have been through a number of changes:
- The blog was once on a subdomain of my company, and now has its own domain.
- I started at infrequent posts, then went to 2-3 posts a week, and now am at 5-6 posts per week.
- The topics have changed as my voice has developed and my experience has grown.
Gas Stations Don’t Need Blogs
I read a post today on how a corner gas station owner could benefit from having a blog.
Challenge: Can You Stump Business and Blogging?
I know you’re going to read it and then tell me it was not about gas stations needing blogs, but about the benefits of blogging for any and every business. My argument is that this post is absurd and misleading in its self-serving logic. (Of course a site that generates ad revenue based on content for business blogging would say every business needs a blog!) I know the piece was meant to be fun and attract traffic, but this was just over the top. I would also not take such offense if I didn’t see this same sentiment echoed by 95% of the web developers and marketing professionals out there. To combat this problem, and to help the non-tech people just looking for advice on marketing their business and their website, I offer this:
Every business does not need a blog!
The Joy of StumbleUpon
I have been getting a lot of traffic in the past few weeks from StumbleUpon. I was discussing this with a colleague of mine, and he asked me how I attract traffic from StumbleUpon. The answer is: I don’t. I do my best to write good content, and the links will follow.
It’s not about writing for search engines or links or anything else. You write for people.
If you’d like to learn more about what I mean by that, check out the recently released podcast I did on using content and code to market your website. You can also read the discussion that came out of it.
It’s Family Friday
I’m writing this post on my "break". You see, my daughter has been sick for a couple of days—and anyone with a 2-year-old can tell you that a toddler barfing all night is enough to knock a few years off your life span. Instead of actually resting, I thought I’d take a moment on my break from her needs to discuss the balance between work and family with my readers.
I’m a Location Independent Professional!
Disclaimer: I’m not picking on the people who really do live like that. Really, I’m not—if it works for you, then great.
I saw a blog entry today on Problogger from someone saying she is a "location independent professional". After immediately thinking that sounded a whole lot like a "hook of a brand-like name" (straight from the Wally Bock laugh from earlier this week), I was intrigued enough to click on the link. So what is a location independent professional? Basically someone who can do their job from anywhere in the world as long as they have their laptop and an internet connection.
Another Kind of "Dip"
There has been a lot of talk lately about Seth Godin’s new book, The Dip, and even some discussion on whether or not you can teach someone the business skills that allow them to know when to quit. But today I want to talk about a different kind of quitting—one that involves a change in your life plan. As it is with your business and career, knowing when to change your life plan is important to your long-term success.
The Problem of Internet Marketing
Internet marketing is a huge trend on the internet right now. It is important for small business owners to understand what it is in order to develop effective strategies for marketing themselves. It is equally important for marketing professionals to maintain a code of ethics and not follow this lead of falsehood in order to allow the system to correct itself naturally.