The Silent Avatar Speaks

Imagine you have become the proud owner of a new web site, with a lovely webdesign.

The very next thing to do is to bring in visitors, and social media offers an interesting place to begin.

There are a few social media sites on the net, and their number is growing daily. But the three main ones are Myspace, Twitter and Facebook. If you have our own business, it is critical that you start blogging or submitting entries on a social networking site. In case you need a blog or content management systeem attached to your website, ask your webdesigner for help. This way, you can advertise your business to thousands of folks that are also attached to the social media site. These sites also supply you with instant communication, and these sites are free to join.

The only way to make the maximum of the social media advantage is to line up an account with all three social networking sites, particularly Facebook. Facebook is one of the swiftest growing social networking web sites in the world, so you are going to be able to draw in clients outside your country, which is particularly ideal if you are running an internet business. You may use the ‘notes’ section of Facebook to explain the function and goals of your business. You can include as many folk in the note as you want, so that prospective partners and backers can find out more about your company.

After you create an account with these social media sources, you must start to make chums on each of these sites. You can start by inviting your acquaintances and family to join the site, and then connecting to their common friends. This may help your network to grow, since you will be stunned what quantity of friends you know. If the members that you’ve sent buddy requests to have their own companies as well, it is probable that your request will be accepted quicker.

You may post info about any business-related events that you are going to be having. You can invite friends to visit the event, and can create an RSVP list, so you may know exactly how many are interested to get ready for. Remember to be consistent when you are using social media. You must check back on the site a couple of times a day to update your standing and add more chums, and to keep your network updated about the pro progress you are making. This way you may have a successful web site in a brief period of time. At Silent Avatar Business Solutions you can get more data if making internet sites isn’t your thing.

I’m the silent avatar and I have spoken

Tags: Social Networking by the silent avatar
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If you have been following along in my previous post “How To Get Motivated and Stay Motivated”, you will find this is a continuation where I discuss how to keep your momentum when you are the sole person responsible for your success.

If you haven’t read it already, go now and read up because you will find this post a better “fit” after you have read it.

Now having said that, lets push on…

So here we are… just starting out in a our ”work from home” business where it usually starts in some dingy den, or cramped study where the relationship is just between you and your PC or laptop.

Now if there is one thing I have found about working from home, it is that you have to be disciplined.  Even more so if you are “it” (that is, no one else to delegate tasks to).When you work from home distractions come thick and fast, and before long you can find that your day is whittled down to a couple of productive hours interspersed with paying your bills, sending emails to friends, eating, making coffee, shopping, general surfing the Net, and oftentimes playing Solitaire or Spider!  Does this sound familiar to you?

Even if you are working a full time or part time job to supplement your income, the time you DO have generally reads like the above paragraph (you just don’t waste quite as many hours doing it).

So what’s the answer?

Well, having been there and done that I could seriously see where my days efforts were all but naught when I kept giving priority to “other things”.If you are like me and are easily distracted, then consider this one of those things that makes you FAIL. In essence, you are not moving forward (well not at any speed anyway), and some days (as far as progressing your business), you are merely standing still.

Remember  what I said in the previous post?  “If you are not moving forward, you are either going backward or standing still”.

So let’s get to a technique which is sure to keep you on track.

1. Decide how much time you CAN devote to your business EACH day. Be practical. If you have to pick up kids, maker dinner, shop, pay bills, do laundry, watch your favourite show on TV, and the million and one other things that our daily life requires, factor these in when you decide how much time you can afford to spend on your business. If you don’t, these tasks will encroach upon your “business times’ and you will be less effective in growing your business.

Now that you have decided how much time each day you can spend on building your business,  it’s time to create a timetable. What?!

2. Create a timetable.If you think about it our bodies are on a timetable. We eat at certain times, get up and go to bed atr certain times, we might even have certain times of the week we do specific things (like catch up with family). All of these things happen because we are in the habit of doing them at certain times.


If you want to eliminate the time wasters that stop you from getting to where you need to go you need to become an efficient time manager.  If you are someone that is already baulking at doing this exercise, then it is definitely for you.

When creating your timetable, brainstorm what time you are going to work on your business.Look.. I know this may be anal to some people, but there is a very good reason you are deciding what time you allocate to your business. It’s all very well saying you can devote a couple of hours a day to growing your business, but if you don’t commit yourself to a time to grow your business by setting aside specific time periods you will have difficulty keeping your commitment, and fail (or at the least take a lot longer to grow your business). 

 

Think about when the best time is to knuckle down and get focused on your business – for YOU.

3. Set your tasks (aka priorties). That is, do what your business MUST have done first.  So now write down on your whiteboard ALL the tasks your business requires to GROW. You don’t need to get into specifics at this stage.

Now look at the tasks and put next to each task a Priority Rating.  Use whatever you like. High, Medium, Low,  I-10. Whatever you feel is appropriate which when you look at it quickly you can see where your focus needs to be.

So.. here is what you might end up with on your whiteboard…

Time spent each day = 2 hours. When = Monday/Wed/Friday 8-10pm

Tasks:
Create Unique Selling Proposition (USP) = 1
Create Website = 2
Monetise site = 3
Drive traffic to site = 5
Create auto responder = 4
Search out JV’s = 6
Advertise (PPC, Print Media, CPA) = 7

Now you could look at the task list and say “but they are ALL priorities!” and that would be true. Without all of the tasks completed you will have more difficulty growing your business, however you have to start somewhere, and if you have the resources to hire a freelancer, you can move your business along quicker and delegate some of the tasks.

For instance, if you have the money to advertise on Adwords or similar, you can potentially drive traffic to your site without having to tweak your website using Search Engine Optimisation tactics, or having a really top notch website. However…. if you don’t give serious thought to how your website retainsthe site visitor that you have PAID for to get there, and they simply leave the site without doing what you want them to do (ie, buy, sign up, give details, etc), then you have wasted your money.

4. Commit to working on your highest priority task, at the time you have set, on the day/s you have set and do it religiously. No excuses. Only do this task. Stay focused. Don’t wander, sidestep, or get drawn into doing other things if it is not related to your task at hand.

Doing this will keep you on track, utilise your time better, and move you towards completing your task quicker.

So there you have it. 4 Steps to growing your business and keeping yourself motivated.

To summarise…

1. Determine how much time you can realistically devote to growing your business
2. Create a timetable of when you will work on your business.
3. Set your tasks and prioritise
4. Stay focused until completed on each task

When you have finished your task,move onto your next priority. If you find you need to do other things add them to your list and re-prioritise.

TIP: Re-focus on your priorities. If you have to write yourself a sticky note with the words “Re-Focus” and stick it in front of you then do it!

If you have any of your own tips or questions about this post, please leave your comments.

I’m the silent avatar… and I have spoken

Tags: Business and Management, Business Tips, General, Tools For Your Business by the silent avatar
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I’ve been a bit neglectful of my readers of late… and I really do apologise.  You see I’ve been busy moving and planning a trip to South East Asia (for 6 months) in between finalising a website I have just done and mentoring a friend who has dived head first in a MLM company (but more of than in another post). So this has left me with scant time to blog. (“Yes… I know what you mean I can hear you say”)

Now before you all start groaning and mumbling  ”lucky bugger” under your breath let me say this…

There is no such thing as luck.  Just desire, a clear goal, and then doing what needs to be done until you get your goal, mixed in with a big dollop of self motivation.

Of course we all have tasks we dislike, and this brings me to an revelation which prohibits us from getting where we want to go – self motivation. Some revelation eh? Doh.

Sure.. we have all had grand ideas, and quite frankly most times we even know how to execute them. The problem is we loose self motivation, and this ingredient has a habit of completely ruining our recipe for success.

I’ve come to know this about self motivation (usually through having experienced a lack of it), and it has been the reason why so many times I have had great ideas which have never seen the light of day, and the reason I have tried a gazillion diets and never loose the weight I want to.

If you’re like me and there is any element of the goal which involves either a task you dislike, a struggle with “how”, or if physical pain is caused along the way (and let me include hip pocket pain as well), then we are very likely NOT to be self motivated. Right?

What you started out being really excited about soon becomes something you would rather not even think about because:

1. You have spent a truck load of money you really didn’t have in the first place to spend on our idea (usually at the detriment of others around us like the wife, the husband or the kids)
2. In the beginning you have told so many friends and family how fabulous your idea is and how you are going to set the world on fire, you don’t want to remind them what you said so you keep it all “hush hush” and don’t mention it, in the hope it will go away, or 
3. You create another “focus”, another idea which inspires you again.

And so goes the pattern for a lot of us.
Great Ideas. Full of inspiration. Task becomes “painful”. Lack of motivation. Failure.

It’s a bloody merry-go-round which keeps us failing.

However… when there is what I call “feel goods” along the way, self motivation comes naturally.

In the context of an online business “feel goods” are things like increased purchases, new blog readers, better rankings, more subscribers, etc, a new lead…

When you are starting out “feel goods” are few and far between, and very quickly (unless you can bring out your own self motivation) you will become despondent, and then it’s only a matter of time before your goals are just a distant memory which you would rather forget because to remember them evokes your own sense of being a failure.

Failure. I’ve failed.

Nothing evokes dread more than these words (well maybe “Do you feel lucky punk” is in there too .

We all like to win.. be The Best, Number One, Top of the Class. Numero Uno.

In essence SUCCESSFUL.

Keep reading because I’m going to give you some ideas on how to keep yourself self motivated and keep you on track and moving forward.

1. First get this… if you ain’t moving forward you are either going backwards, or standing still.


Read it again. And again. If necessary write it down and put it where you do your most work.

But whatever you do get it!  If you aren’t moving forward you are either moving backwards or standing still.

2. Affirm this “I choose to move forward and be a successfull”

3. Get a white board and use it! If you don’t have one get one.

Have your white board in a place where you can always refer to it (this really is your “silent motivator”).

4. Brainstorm with yourself ideas about how to move forward and write them up. Then prioritise the action steps to get to where you need to go.

5. When you have brainstormed, write down (again on your whiteboard) one thing which will stop you if you were to actually do what you brainstormed about.


(Lets just stop here for a second so I can give you the picture).

Ok.. Let’s use this as an example…

List building (everyone wants more TARGETED people on their list).

So there you are in front of your whiteboard and you are brainstorming how to build your list of TARGETED prospects.  You write up on the board start a blog, post in forums, write articles with linkbacks to your site, advertise in print media, find a JV, plan a product launch…

Then you look over your list and find the one that appeals to you most (the one you are MOST LIKELY to do).

Next, think about what thing would stop you continuing to do it? Money? Time? Pain?

Whetever it is identify the one thing that will bring you undone if you were to go ahead and do what you plan.


So you got it? Identify your weakness before you start and plan to NOT fail.

6. Now you have identified what will bring you unstuck, plan to overcome it. Hate writing? Find a freelancer. No time to blog? Find a freelancer. Don’t know how to do something? Decide if you really NEED to know and learn it or, find a freelancer who can do it for you.

“But..” I hear you say!  “It takes money to hire a freelancer!”

Yes.. and I’ll say this.. If you already know that there is a task that you hate to do, (or can’t do, wont do, no time to do) and this task is integral to getting to where you need to go, then you absolutely WILL FAIL if you do not address this BEFORE you start.

So now that you know what will bring you unstuck you need to be prepared to open the wallet, barter your services with someone else who CAN do what you can’t (aka freelancer), or forget your idea because you will fail. No question. 

What motivates me to be up at 6.30am and write this blog?

Because I want to and I can, and it is a step in getting to where I need to go, and doing it teaches me so much about my own shortcomings.

Why didn’t I just get a freelancer to write my blog posts while I was busy? Next time I will.

Why? Because during the time I was busy doing other things I neglected my readers and I lost half of my readers. HALF!

IDENTIFY YOUR WEAKNESS and address it before it wins and stamps you a failure.

Time was my weakness. And time CAN be brought.

I’m going to continue this post in the next post because I have a few more ideas up my sleeve to help which will keep you on track.

Not the least is posting a comment and including a question in a blog post.

So .. got a question? Just post it here and I can motivate you with a dialogue between us.

I’m the silent avatar… and I have spoken.

Tags: Business Tips, General, Traffic Generation by the silent avatar
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yellow pages
Achieving good search engine visibility has become a necessity for every website today. Sometimes you can feel disconnected and separated from the rest of the world and disenfranchised a bit when you have gone to a lot of time and effort to create a product, get a website (or create it yourself), only to find that the traffic just  isn’t happening.

Submitting your site to a directory, or ensuring the major search engines have your site indexed is akin to putting a “now open” sign outside the front door of a shop.

Taking this analogy further, if you had a brick and mortar shop in some dark back ally without a sign to let customers know where you were, then you would have to expect not to do good business.

Likewise, getting a website up in a neighbourhood of thousands (of other websites), is no guarantee on it’s own that you will be found.  Sure just the fact that you are on the web a search engine spider will come along and index your site – but sometimes this can take months!

Once your website is up and running, the next step is all about being found!

There are many ways by which a website can get high rankings in major search engines. One such important method is directory submission. Then the best way for you to solve this problem is to get yourself connected.

Once a website is submitted it takes anywhere between 1 day to 3 months for the website link to be added into the directory. Whether your directory is targeting the local companies community or you are targeting the international health community, to ensure that your site gets added into the directory, your site must submitted to the most appropriate category otherwise it can be rejected.

Submitting your own site, rather than waiting can speed things up a bit for you, however there are literally hundreds of directories which you can submit your site to, and this can be time consuming.

If you have the money, go for a site submission service. I don’t recommend any, as i deal with mainly people who are short on funds, and would rather do the leg work themselves and save a few bucks. That being said, this sinl;t something that you should not give priority to.

Submitting to one directory per day, will give you 365 listings in a year! (not bad at maths eh?).

Most times though we get side tracked, and forget this valuable resource which only takes our time.

My Suggestion is to create a “task” in Outlook (or Google Mail), and remind yourself to do this. Even if you only do it once a week, you will be listed in 52 directories. Obviously the more the better!

Submitting to a directory provides a way for search engine spiders (also known as crawlers or robots) to find your website and index it in their own database.  Also, as soon as a site is hosted, it must be submitted in web directories so that search engine robots can crawl it. Since these robots visit directories more often than other sites, probability remains high that your site will be indexed soon. People will begin to respect what you are doing and may tell more people about your directory since they are starting to feel that your directory is more people oriented instead of just simply getting the most listings in the world.

A directory placement provides the extra benefit of getting relevant traffic to your website, which is why it is critical to list your site under the correct category.  For example,  searching for the “companies opportunity ” in companies opportunity directories is a good way to find the legitimate offer you might be interested in.

Since people who are actively looking for new websites and portals often visit these web directories, chances remain high that such people may also visit your site and thus provide your site free traffic. Sometimes you can immediately find the opportunity that sounds really attractive for you and which have proven to be legitimate and effective over the years.

There are a number of directories which you can submit your website to to ensure that those who are looking for what you have to offer actually find you.

The more directories your submit to the more chance you will have being found, and the more likely people will see you are “now open”.

To start, try this search to locate your site, and if not already listed follow their “submit url” link to include your site.  I have included links you can add your site to below.

dmoz.org

I’m the Silent Avatar… and I have spoken

Submit your Website URL to over 600 Search Engines, Directories, Indexes and Links pages for worldwide FREE!

Tags: Business Tips, Marketing and Advertising by the silent avatar
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