The Need for Authenticity as an Entrepreneur

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Right now I am reading “Nothing To Lose Everything To Gain” by Ryan Blair.  In his book he mentions what he refers to as the need for authenticity.  By this I interpret him to mean that people who are in business need to be upfront and truthful with their customers since people in the today’s marketplace have a keener sense than ever before when it comes to seeing that something looks fishy and suspect.

I myself could not agree more.  Since coming onto the online seen, it has become so apparent when people present you with rhetoric that you could swear has been used by numerous other individuals.   The promises of quick profits, massive website traffic, skyrocketing sales conversions are triggers that make me instantly say to myself “Yeah, Right!”  People doing business in today’s marketplace need to endeavor to present themselves as genuine as well as being truly interested in the needs of their customers.  When this takes place, customers will see it right away and be more inclined to do business with you.  You will not be perceived as just another online marketer peddling their wares.

Now how can you go about doing this?  Well, since you don’t want to be seen as being “just like one of the others,” you want to think about what you can do to make yourself stand apart from the crowd.  In other words, figure out what you can do to brand yourself and make yourself stand alone.  You can start out by just being yourself, acting with sincerity (if there is something you don’t have an answer for, say so and let the person know when you will get the answer) and conveying true interest in the needs and wishes of those who you want to attract to your business.

Another thing you can do is to strive to provide true value to your customers.  Provide service that is of greater value in relation to the compensation you are receiving.  This doesn’t mean that you have to give the shirt off of your back but you will not go wrong by providing top-notch service to your clients.

As always, Best Wishes and here’s to you “Thinking Outside The Box!”


 

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Support Small Business Saturday

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When I was back on the East Coast earlier this week, I started seeing commercials calling for support of Small Business Saturday.  This year marked the second Small Business Saturday promotion by American Express and this is one event that I was glad to find out about.

During the time I was growing up in El Centro, California, I remember numerous shops that went up and down Main Street that sold a plethora of different goods.  There were clothing stores, jewelry stores, the local drug store, music shop, hardware stores, a toy shop, various eateries etc.  I thought it was fun getting to know the people who ran and worked at the various places.  Later on when I would come back to visit, I saw that many of these shops had closed down.  Bigger stores such as Walmart, Home Depot, Rite-Aid and Target had moved in and were able to offer products at a lower price since they carried larger inventories.  As a result of not being able to compete, going out of business ensued.

Now it seemed that the sense of community that once existed had gone by the wayside.  You no longer said hello to those who worked at the store,  you just made your purchases and left.  Things were now a lot more impersonal.

Small Business Saturday is an event promoted by American Express calling for support of small business by going out into your community and patronizing those shops that are owned by individuals who have not thrown in the towel to larger corporations and still carry on in an American tradition.    Even though this year’s event will probably be over by the time you read this post, I call upon you to support small businesses whenever you can.  Let businesses owners know that their efforts are not in vain and that being vacuumed up by giant conglomerates is not something that has to be accepted in today’s marketplace.

Thank you American Express for starting this nationwide event that is a reflection of the American spirit!

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How Hesitation Can Result in Missed Opportunities

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When it comes to those situations where you find yourself at a loss for what action to take, it may end up that when you decide what it is you want to do, the opportunity will have slipped away.  Also, if you know what it is that you want to do but procrastinate in taking the action, it may also move beyond your reach.

Now granted there are those situations that come up where if one acts hastily, a less than desirable outcome may ensue.  I think it is safe to say that when Trump Tower was built, it was not the result of marking the spot with a piece of chalk and beginning construction the next day. But sometimes we just need to go with our inner feelings and trust that they will give us the guidance that we need for taking the right actions.  So the next time something presents itself to you, you may be left with nothing else than trusting your intuition and using that to make a choice.  If it turns out to be the incorrect choice, see what you can learn from the experience and take it from there.  Make an effort to see the good in whatever you are faced with.

A recent experience of mine dealt with having to write content for when I received an offer for a sponsored review on a product that I liked using.  I was given a three-day deadline for submitting the content but kept on putting it off and putting it off.  By the third day at the time when I decided to start writing, I saw that the offer was withdrawn and no longer available.  So as a consequence, I was out some good money.  But the lesson learned was a good one hence the reason I wanted to share this with you.  One might think that they can do something another time, but it may turn out that this was the only time.

Best Wishes and here’s to you “Thinking Outside The Box!”

 

 

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Amazon reestablishes affiliate program in California

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Early in 2011, California Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation imposing a tax upon affiliates of Amazon.com which resulted in Amazon suspending affiliate operations in that state.  Amazon took the stand that it should not have to collect sales tax based upon not having a physical presence in the state.  California in turn felt that since Amazon was involved with a startup company called Lab126 in Cupertino, California, that in fact a physical presence did exist and therefore the sales tax could be imposed.

With the suspension of some 25,000 affiliates in California, the state cut itself off from another source of revenue.  This would have been the tax on income that would have to have been reported form the affiliate commissions that were generated and paid to California based affiliates.  I did come across instances where people were going to Nevada and other states so that they could maintain the business relationship with Amazon.

Months after the bill was enacted, it was later repealed and Amazon reestablished it’s affiliate operations in California.  I must admit I was happy to see this because I enjoy promoting Amazon products.  It also gives people an avenue to pursue business ventures in the online arena even when the time constraints of a regular job can get in the way.  With this new development having taken place, let us all continue to be thankful for any opportunities to pursue business success that come our way.

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Let People Know You Mean Business

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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Express for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Face it, when you agree to meet with someone to conduct business, you only get one chance to make an initial impression.  When your potential business clients or partners see you for the first time,  what you are wearing can be a deal breaker if you’re not careful.  That’s why it’s so important that you dress appropriately and professionally to show the world that you are serious about business.

Looking your best will not be a challenge with the business wear that’s available from Express.  Whether you are a man or a woman, donning a business suit from Express will instantly set the tone for you to be a person that people want to do business with.

My personal favorite from the Express selection is the Striped Modern Fit Suit but if I want to lighten it up a bit I like the Stretch Wool Gray Fitted Suit.  Take a look at the link so you can see what I am talking about:

EXPRESS EXPRESS

For the ladies, there is also a variety of suit options that will certainly project that you are in control and will have the men saying “go ahead, I’m listening.”  As for myself, if a lady enters the room with a one-button jacket along with a knee length skirt and some high heels, my calls are going on hold.  Take a look at the link below and see which ensemble you see yourself in.

women’s suits

Not only will a suit from Express meet your business attire needs, they are perfect for a night out immediately afterwards.  Whether its to meet that special someone for dinner or off to a Broadway show, there will be no need to go home and change.

Right now, for a limited time, you can enter everyday for a chance to win a $500 suiting makeover from Express!  You want to submit your name now.  I can’t imagine anyone saying “no thanks, I would rather spend the money instead of you putting it on your tab.”  Click on the link to learn more.

Express sweepstakes

So if you are in need of some attire upgrade or even if you already have enough suits, take a look for yourself and see what Express Business Suits has to offer you.  Feel free to leave a comment below and which suits you like the best and why.  Also mention what you would use your suit for.  Would it be business, networking or to ace that next job interview?

To learn more about business suits from Express,  click here! Express

Once you are clad in an business suit from Express, you will most definitely be ready to Work It!

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Here is something that will make you gasp and say “What’s going on!?”

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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Untitled Jersey City Project for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Everyone once in awhile a TV series comes along that tugs at you hard, makes you gasp and asking your friends what just happened and what does it all mean?

Well with the series “Untitled Jersey City Project,” that time is here.  The plot is centered around an urban renovation project taking place on the waterfront in Jersey City across from Manhattan.  A casual passer by may think that this modernization project is for the benefit of the city residents but  deep down there is intrigue, sinister agendas and lots at stake – including lives.

The eight short episodes of Untitled Jersey City Project are pieces of a puzzle that make up a larger story.  Although you make think you have a handle on what’s going on, you still won’t have access to the bigger picture.  But from what is presented to you the viewer, it will be obvious that even in modern times, the old ways of getting things done can still be very much in effect.  Cloaked in the cold, overcast setting of the Jersey waterfront, all is not what it appears to be.  Behind every face you meet, in every building you enter, in every car that pulls up alongside,  danger may be waiting when you least suspect.

The characters in the series include an architect schooled at Columbia, his morally fragile partner, an unscrupulous real-estate tycoon who is at risk for losing his shirt, an investigative reporter and some shady investors from Asia.  This is a well selected cast who portray their roles forcefully and make you believe you are right there in the middle of it all.  This experimental approach to television drama combines intrigue, deception, murder, intimidation and betrayal.  Watching Untitled Jersey City Project will leave you sitting at the edge of your seats, hold you captive and not being able to wait to find out what happens next.

To get a feel for what lies in store for you with Untitled Jersey City Project, watch the video below

After watching the video, please leave a comment below to share your thoughts with others.

UNT_091311_Title_bmb_v01.ai (1 page)

Untitled Jersey City Project

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How to Simplify Navigation in Your Blog

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As your blog continues to grown over the course of time, it may become more difficult for your readers to find blog posts that contain information that is of interest to them.  That’s why it is necessary to help your readers get the information they seek in the easiest manner possible.   At some point you can think of your blog as an “info-city” that has places your readers will want to find.

In order to make getting around your “info-city” more reader friendly, you want to provide them with a sitemap that will list the places that are available for them to go to.  By this,  I mean that if you provide them with a sitemap on one of your blog pages, they will have a well organized and easy to understand list of all the blog posts that are listed in each of the subcategories in your blog.  The sitemap that I am referring to is not to be confused with a Google XML sitemap.   Adding a sitemap page also gives your blog a more professional look and feel that will certainly be appreciated by your visitors.

The method that I have been using to install a sitemap is by installing the Sitemap Generator Wordpress Plugin from DagonDesign.   To learn more about how to access and install this plugin, go to www.dagondesign.com for instructions.   Once the plugin is installed and you have placed the necessary code on your sitemap page, you will have a well organized list of your blog posts that are divided by the categories you have developed for your blog.  If you feel that having this plugin is useful, by all means please consider a donation to the developers of this plugin as a sign of appreciation for their hard work.

I certainly have been pleased with the extra functionality that this plugin has added to my blogs and I am certain that you will be too!

Best Wishes and here’s to you “Making It Happen!”

 

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Teach Yourself PHP

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One of the many aspects involved with setting up a website or amending a website is dealing with files that have the .php extension.  The term “php” stands for  PHP: hypertext preprocessor.  I have found that more and more files that I deal with are php files and that HTML (hypertext markup language) files are not the dominant type of file format as they one were.  PHP and HTML are both programming languages that use there own programming formats.  Over the course of time and depending upon your website development desires, it may become necessary to familiarize yourself with how to develop and write files in one or both languages.  For the purpose of this post, I will be dealing with how to teach yourself PHP.

The PHP logo displaying the Handel Gothic font.

Image via Wikipedia

Now what is the purpose of PHP?  PHP is a scripting language that assists in the development of websites and it can be incorporated into HTML.  Outside of that, I will have to admit that I don’t know much about it.  Click on the following link to get a more in-depth explanation from Wikipedia that describes PHP:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP

What got me to write this post was that I was recently involved with some editing to some .php files on one of my WordPress blogs.  I ended up basically having to compare an initial php file with an identical file that I wanted to edit (I wanted to omit the author name and dates from the blog posts) and basically change various sections of the file on a hit and miss basis.  Now granted there were plenty of “tips” available on how to do this but I found that various WordPress themes had different formats for the variables that I was interested in changing.

So this whole experiment that consisted of “try-this” then “try-that” got me to think more about learning about the PHP language.  I consider myself a bit dangerous with HTML so I thought “why not teach yourself php” as well?  Now with my current schedule, I don’t have any time to take night classes and I am not in the mindset right now to buy a software program that is loaded with tutorials on how to learn php.

So lo and behold I perused through the pages on a membership site that I belong to and came across an ebook titled “PHP for Beginners.”  I thought “great!,” I can start learning more about PHP and I decided that I would offer it to my readers as well.  Not only that, I am going to offer it Gratis and it will come with sales pages and Master Resell Rights.  That way I will not only provide you with a gift, you can turn around and promote this yourself if you are so inclined.

So in closing, if you are in the newbie stage when it comes to php, I highly encourage you to download this eBook and check it out.  Add your knowledge of this scripting language to your entrepeurial repertoire.  Take advantage of this opportunity to teach yourself php and embrace what it has to offer.  Who knows, what you learn may be just what it takes for you to surpass any online competition.  To download your copy of PHP for Beginners, click on the following link:  Teach Yourself PHP.  Note: This is a large file and may take a while to load based upon your Internet connection.  After you have had a chance to go through this eBook, please come back and leave a comment.  I would very much appreciate knowing how this works out for you.

As always………..

Best Wishes and here’s to you “Making It Happen!”


 

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Traffic Generation for Your Website

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When we are just starting out, coming up with ways to get some traffic (meaning visitors) to your site can be seen as a challenge.  If you don’t generate traffic to your website, no one will be seeing what it is that you have to offer and as a result, no sales will be made for your business.

So how then, does one go about the process of drawing visitors to his or her website?  With the tremendous amount of competitors that one may be potentially facing, it is essential to learn some basics on how to go about this process.  Now there are many products out there that claim to help you draw traffic to your site like a big vacuum cleaner but you need to be careful.  Many of these that I have tried myself have turned out to be nothing more than glorified social bookmarking programs that submit your website URL’s to various directories who quality is questionable at best.  One program I tried out only submitted URL’s to a whopping four (yes, 4) directories and there was no means available to increase this number.

Now a quick and easy way to get your site indexed so that search engines will start picking up your site is to submit a “ping” to pingler.com.  This will send your URL to a wide variety (usuall 82-83 with this site).  Once search engine spiders start to crawl your site, a ranking for your site will be established and traffic would start coming to your page (no amount guaranteed here).

Another method you should consider for traffic generation is by submitting articles having content relevant to your website to article directories.  This would allow you to also include a link to your site so that when people are finished reading your article, they can click the link on your website to find out more information.  To see one of the articles that I have written that contains a link to one of my websites, click here.  My two favorite article directories are ezinearticles.com and goarticles.com.

Another method you can look into is by signing up to join forums.  Forums are groups of people sharing an interest in a common topic.  Depending on the conditions for use set by the forum’s organizer, you may be able to post links to your site so that those who read your post can find out more information.

With all the methods available for generating traffic to your website, it is impractical to list them in one post.  But one thing everyone needs to be familiar with in order to have a hope for being effective in traffic generating efforts is keyword research.  Keywords are words that people who are searching for information on a topic of interest type into search engines in order to yield a list of websites containing the desired information.  You always want to use keywords that are relevant to the topic of concern on your website.  For example, if you have a website that talks about yoga techniques,  you don’t want to use a irrelevant keyword such as cleaning products for your website.  You want to use keywords that have high search volumes and low competition levels.  To get a good explanation at what this means, I recommend you view the excellent tutorial videos dealing with keyword research that are provided by Market Samurai.  A free trial version of Market Samurai is available for download.  If you wish to use the advanced features of this program after the trial period, you need to go ahead and purchase the product.  Another good paid keyword research tool is Keyword Elite.  This advanced keyword research tool has many similar features to Market Samurai but in a different layout.  I myself use both Market Samurai and Keyword Elite but if you decide that free is best, by all means check out the Google Keyword tool which is also an excellent program.

Give yourself the time to research and review the various methods of traffic generation and keyword research.  If you have not done so already, be sure to look into social bookmarking as well.  The OnlyWire plugin for WordPress blogs helps with this and it is a personal favorite of mine!!   Over the course of time you will be able to determine which methods work best for you.  As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect” and in this case there is always room for improvement.

Here are a couple of extra links that you might also like to check out:

TrafficSwarm.com

AdlandPro.com

Best Wishes and here’s to you “Making It Happen!”


 

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Security for Your WordPress Blog

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One of the top concerns for all aspects of computer usage involving the Internet is that of security.  It seems that new threats pop up quicker than the stuff that grows in a petri dish.  In addition to having adequate firewall protection installed on your computer, you should also consider installing it on your blog as well.

An easy way for you to do this if you have not done so already is to install the WordPress Firewall 2 plugin that is available free of charge.  Just go to the plugins page on your blog and select the “add new” option.  From there, type in the word Firewall in the search bar and from there the plugin will appear on the next page.  Select the appropriate links for plugin installation and activation.

Last week I started getting alert messages saying that saying that WordPress had detected and blocked a potential attack.  Further review of the message showed that it may have been what is called a directory traversal attack.  To learn more about this type of attack, please refer to the below link:

Wikipedia article on directory traversal

To get more great info on how to incorporate security into your WordPress blog (it will help your business as well!), take a look at the article below written by the awesome John Chow!  Enjoy and be careful out there in the blogosphere.

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