Today I have a handful of links for you. Some of my colleagues in the blogosphere have some really good posts that contain tips and pointers that you can apply right away to make your day more productive.
Dave Navarro, who writes at Rock Your Day has a list of reasons to get up earlier and get started on your day. I have been getting up around 5:00 am for years now, even though I may not start my day job with BigCorp until much later in the day. I like this one best:
The greatest thing about waking up early is that almost nobody else does. :-) This means you have a chunk of time where you’re likely to be free of interruptions and demands - and you can finally do some things for yourself (for a change!). The things you’ve been putting off - exercise, journaling, reading, relaxing, attending to your personal or spiritual growth - these are all things that you can start making time for “under the radar” of a day that crouches in wait with infinite urgencies and demands. By setting aside a slice of your day for you, a more balanced life becomes something you’re actually working for, rather than hoping for.
Naomi Dunford, who is the Mogul of Marketing at IttyBiz has put together a list of 45 Home Business Resources: Things and People That Help You Make Money In Your Underwear. Now this is a list!
Just a few to get your mouth watering:(note - IttyBiz is rated PG-13 for language, it’s her thing)
First, you’ll need a domain. To make sure your domain doesn’t suck, you’ll want to do some keyword research. Wordtracker has some funky tools and they’ve got a buy one month, get one month free thing on right now. If you’ve been thinking about trying it, now’s the time.
Once you have found a non-sucky domain, you’ll have to buy it. You can buy one pretty much anywhere, but I happen to like InMotion. I’m pretty sure if you buy a hosting package with them (see below), the domain is free anyway.
Once you have a domain, you have to get hosting on it. …
After the incident with the hosting company that shall remain nameless, it was recommended to me — by a friend WITHOUT one of these links — that I try InMotion. I’m pretty damn impressed. If you go and you’re confused, you want the button in the middle that says “Business class hosting, $6.95/month”.
Since you probably don’t want to pay a thousand bucks an hour for an SEO consultant (no, this is not a made up number) you can figure it out for yourself. You’ve got two choices. SEOBook — totally not a book, by the way, but cool nonetheless — and SEOmoz. I have the pro membership for the latter because the Juicy Link Finder is … cool.
If you don’t want to pay a designer, get Site Build It. It seems expensive but frankly, it will blow your mind. Your dog could create a reasonable looking website with this. (If you get this, you probably don’t need WordTracker, or InMotion. It’s all in the box. Something for SEO might still come in handy, though.) Oh, and if it’s good enough for Steve Pavlina, it’s good enough for you and me.
If you don’t mind laying out some cash for a design, check out Men With Pens.
Speaking of Men with Pens, James has a post for those of you that may be in the copywriting field:
It is the writer’s responsibility to ask the proper questions before writing one word of website content. Some good questions to ask buyers include:
• What is the purpose of the website?
• What action would you like visitors to take?
• Is there a specific service or product you would like to promote?
• What image do you want your website to reflect?
• What emotion do you want your visitors to feel when they read your content?
Create a form of standard questions that you can easily send to clients. Forget about the words you have to write. Focus on the initial effects the website needs to impress on site visitors and the after-effects of the content you’ll create.
Mike St.Pierre of The Daily Saint talks about the power of anticipation:
Which makes me wonder- how do you build anticipation among those you work with? Here are some simple and effective ways to cultivate professional curiosity in your area of work:
- Promise results…and deliver. Stick to a plan and deliver the goods. A deadline. A report. A presentation, whatever.
- Be a person of your word. If you lay out a gameplan, stay with it even when times get tough.
There is more, go read it.
Finally, Ian clears off his Messy Desk to talk about guidelines for setting goals:
Do you know anyone who is successful? Have you spent time talking with them about their success? Chances are, they credit setting goals as a major step in their success, and continues to be important as they look for new ways to challenge themselves.
Setting goals is not just for champion athletes or wealthy people. Everyone needs goals to give them direction. It’s not complicated. However, it can be challenging. The process of goal setting can be of value to you in building drive and commitment; important factors in achieving success.
So, there is your reading assignment for today. I may be back later with another short podcast as I continue to learn how my mic and editing software work. Do you have any suggestions for podcast material? I’d love to hear them.
If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5l9em3. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen
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July 1st, 2008 by Stephen
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