Doing your time

Regardless of having one writer or multiple writers for a blog, it’s going to take a hefty amount of effort and time to build up your blogs content and traffic. One of the areas I attribute a lot of the success of this blog to is the time dedication I’ve had. I dropped other hobbies like playing guitar and watching TV to start blogging and reading more. This has been the key to my growth as a person and having one leg of my stool strong as steel. To make sure you put in the right amount of time, trying pacing yourself, or joining in a group like project 52, where you dedicate to writing one post per week. Just remember one important rule.. too much will cause readers to flee and too little will fail to attract them. I think once a week is a good frequency for a new blog.

Putting in the effort

You may be thinking, “isn’t putting in time the same as putting in effort?” .. and the answer is NO. Putting in effort usually means research, capital, and marketing. To run a successful blog, you need a few ingredients to help you along the way such as a professional design, an understanding of SEO, and the right marketing tools such as twitter and facebook. Putting in effort is somewhat misleading, because some of the effort is external, but it all comes back to you. Any money or learning you put into your blog is an effort that will help you keep this leg balanced. As I mentioned with time.. a weekly schedule to teach yourself something new will really help you along.

Remaining Consistent

I see two very common mistakes relating to consistency:

Scenario A involves traffic, a blogger (whether new or veteran) sees the blog as a failure because traffic is low and doesn’t seem to be climbing. The worst thing you could do in Scenario A is give up on it. Think of a blog as real estate or stock.. it’s value may fluctuate significantly, but if you look at the course and direction of the internet as a whole, it’s value is always increasing. If you look at the short term, you’ll see failure, but dedication and consistency will almost always prove successful (combine that with a good exit strategy and you have yourself a business plan).

Hype is like dessert: most of the time it’s incredible, but too much will make you sick

Scenario B involves lack of time or effort. Yes, I’m aware I’ve already mentioned these two points, but bare with me. If you’re putting a lot of time into your blog and it’s not growing you may be focusing on the wrong areas. I see lots of blog focus on social media or spend loads of money on advertising, and they feel highly successful because they see their numbers jump.. for a while. The problem is people get bored with hype, it’s like dessert: really great, but too much or too often will make you sick of it. People need meat and potatoes in their diet. Many loyal readers will favor quality over quantity. My site for example rivals others that have 300+ posts and write daily.. yet it only has around 60 posts.

Put it all together

The last piece is a not-so-secret ingredient, and doesn’t need a paragraph to explain.. you have to be passionate about what you share. Blogs can definitely be profitable, but if you content doesn’t communicate passion and true interest, people aren’t going to be interested in what you have to say. Write to share about what you love, not to make money. Once you’ve built up a successful blog of loyal readers, then try and strategize the financial successes. I’m sure other bloggers would tell you differently, but I’m telling you from my experience that heart has more value than profits. If you enjoy what you do, there’s no price that can replace that.

Forward thinking and positive attitude

Often times when facing grim circumstances, its easy to get caught up in the problems at hand. Instead look beyond the current situation to the solution that lies on the other side. You have the ability to overcome.

Use technology to get ahead

Regardless of your state in this economy, its important to recognize the simple fact that paper and pencil are less popular. You should have some form of digital presence or website if you’re going to compete.

Set goals and plan for the future

It’s naive to think that the economy is going to improve over night or that it won’t effect you. Take the steps necessary to ensure the quality of living you’d like to retain even if you lose your job or business.

Avoid the easy way out

Right now is the opportune time for someone to take advantage of you. Don’t buy into a service that is sounds easy and promising. Make a point to investigate and consult with someone that has your best interest in mind.

Surround yourself with positive people

We all know that times are tough, but if you focus on the problem, it just seems to get bigger. Avoid getting caught up in the poverty mentality by surrounding yourself with successful and optimistic people.

Starting a business without Capital Investment

It’s easy to say that it can be done, but it’s a whole different story to actually execute. Like I mentioned before, take notes from the Getting Real plan. Start your business by moonlight.. don’t quit your day job and jump right in (of course we’re hypocrites saying this because we jumped in, but I wish we had moonlighted first). Either negotiate with your employer to work part-time for a while or start your business at nights.. that way you have the income still to support your bills, but you can start planning and developing your business. Begin networking with other businesses in your field and going to seminars on weekends, because one of the greatest tools in starting a business is connections.

Along with the moonlighting, establish a budget. You may not know all of the costs to operate your business, and you may not be able to prepare for every road block or pitfall. What you can do, however, is give yourself a cushion. Depending on your liabilities (bills), you may want anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 saved up before you quit you job and go full-time as a business.

[podcast format="video"]http://thinkclay.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/business-sense-with-a-few-cents-desktop.m4v[/podcast]

About our Web Company

This post is based on our opinions and testimonials with starting our Web Company. Thinkclay is a blog by Clayton McIlrath based out of Lansing, MI. You can find more us by searching: Lansing Web, Powered by WordPress and Graphic Design Portfolio

Defining Success

Before you learn HOW to be successful, you need to define WHAT success really means to you. Many define success based upon income, net worth, popularity, global effect, lasting impressions, etc. When defining success, you should sit down and really think hard as to what success is to you and why. You’ll find that your own views of success are simply a combination of the views that other people have shared with you. The problem with defining success is that you must first define yourself and what makes you truly happy. I won’t dive deep into what happiness is or how to find it. You need to build yourself internally and do some Self Discovery before you can effectively use those principles externally.

Discovering the Process

Randomly, when I was young, I used to sit and ponder and dream about the strangest principles and fundamentals to life. One principle that I developed was to change my thinking of how the pyramid of life worked. I realized that many people live their lives according to an upside-down pyramid: reacting to the effect of situations rather than reacting to the cause. I figured that my foundation and success in life would stem from my subconscious, self-image and thoughts before I could even use the tools (education, capital, social, etc) that I may posses. I immediately wrote down (on my bedroom wall at the time) a principle that I wanted to follow for my life.. this is what I wrote:

Thoughts become Dreams
Dreams become Premonitions
Premonitions become Reality

This life (and perhaps the next) are structured upon the building blocks of what we think, not what we know

The crazy part is, I came across this EXACT same principle in this book, with very little differences in wording:

Thoughts lead to Feelings
Feelings lead to Actions
Actions lead to Results

Motivation

After you’ve done some self-discovery, you’ll need to do more. Find out what you’re passionate about and what motivates you and then brainstorm some ideas to use your passions towards your own business or investment. This is one of the most important tools to being successful. Make sure that you separate your motivation from anger, fear or the need to prove yourself, as these are motivations that will die out because you’ll never succeed by your own standards. Instead find motivation in purpose, contribution and joy! These are the motivators that will make you successful.

My motivation for success:

• The freedom to help others in need by donating my time and money
• The flexibility and freedom to spend quality time with my family
• The knowledge and wisdom to share with others and help them succeed

Find your strengths and excel above the rest

So many web developers claim to know all when it comes to web, but when put to the test someone that can write “hello world” doesn’t meet the standards the client expected when they said “Do you know PHP?” All developers whether primarily front-end or back-end, should know at least a C level amount in both. To be an awesome back-end developer you need to be able to structure your content in something other than tables or invalid HTML, and to be an awesome back-end developer, you should at least know how to make simple variables and includes to make your job quick and efficient, rather than copying/pasting your doctype and head information on each page. If you want to do well in the next few years, then succeed by being a GURU in at least two of the following:

• XHTML and CSS – with clean and valid markup that works in FF, Webkit, and IE7+
• Flex and ActionScript – flash/animation/design are a huge plus
• JavaScript – with and without frameworks, jQuery or MooTools knowledge a plus
• PHP – cakePHP or codeignitor frameworks will take you to the next level
• .NET – IIS and server administration a plus
• Ruby – Rails will take you to the next level
• JAVA – desktop publishing knowledge a plus

Learn new and trendy technologies

While following trends isn’t always a good idea, trends that have been around for more than just a year and have high demand are usually worth taking a second glance at. In the past 5 years, there are a few major trends that are really growing. I highly recommend picking one of the trends and learning as much as you can about the technology on the side of your current studies and work..

Rich Internet Applications (RIA)

Adobe Flash has always had a strong presence on the web, and that presence is only increasing along with other RIA platforms like Microsoft Silverlight, JavaFX, and the future HTML5. There are almost no major disadvantages to sites built entirely in Flash or other platforms now that search engines like Google are making more of an effort to index RIA content. To top that, Adobe has now adopted a markup language geared more towards developers called FLEX. Flex allows developers to markup their code in MXML while also using ActionScript for animation and then simply, with the click of a button plublish the application in either a SWF for web or as an AIR application for desktop. I strongly believe this is the future of not only the web, but future Operating Systems as well. Google and Ubuntu have already shown a heavy interest in using web applications on the desktop, and phone operating systems are following a similar pattern. While mobile and desktop development are entirely different from web development, learning FLEX is a great way for web developers to cross that threshold and succeed.

Agile Development and Object Oriented code

As the internet reaches the far corners of the Earth, boundaries and barriers are being broken for working remotely on projects. In fact there are many businesses that operate entirely on remote collaboration. This means you need to learn a versioning software and systems (CVS or SVN using Tortoise is a good place to start), how to organize your thoughts and communicate them quickly and effectively over IM or email, and most importantly how to comment and structure your code (for programmers OO principles are a must) so that others can quickly pickup where you left off.

Web Services and Cross-Platform Markup

UML, XML, JSON, REST and SOAP, just to name the most common languages, are becoming a must for nearly every developer. Almost every RIA and API use a language like this to communicate. Any site that is dynamic is probably using at least one of these technologies. I can’t specifically tell you which is more relevant or popular, as it varies per project, but I can tell you that they’re all fairly simple to learn, so I suggest doing your homework or ready a book on each to know at least base knowledge and markup for each of them.

Refine your Interpersonal Communication Skills

As you climb the corporate ladder, or step out into the world of business, it will become more and more important that your written and verbal communication skills are sharp and effective. The gap that used to exist between sales/consulting/design/IT is now closing, and more businesses are switching to an Agile model. This means from the start of a project or team, you may be communicating directly with a client, or with others that don’t know or understand the technology. You’ll need to learn how to explain things so that others can easily understand and relate, as well as sound professional and well educated. These skills are not easy to hone, and require a lot of time. I highly recommend actively getting involved in forums/blogging to improve written communication, perhaps join a local business group or Chamber of Commerce to learn how to communicate better in a professional business setting (another perk to this is the networking), and ask others to correct and help you identify bad habits and mistakes.

Self Discovery

I think the most important aspect to starting a business is knowing yourself. This phase should have the most time spent on it, and should never be considered “complete.” Self discovery is an ever changing process and is needed in nearly every situation when it comes to business. Here are some keys to consider when doing some self discovery that are specific enough to business:

Passion

It’s such a short and simple word, yet can mean everything. Passion is the heartbeat of a business, and if it’s not beating strong, the business has little to work with. When you’re considering starting a business, ask yourself why. If you’re answer doesn’t fall along the lines of, “it’s what I love to do,” than reconsider. Passion can come in many shapes and forms, and people don’t often get to choose what they’re passionate about. Look at me for example.. I simply stumbled onto web development by chance while in college for graphic design, and my passion overtook me and drove me to succeed and grow in unmeasurable ways. Once you have passion, you have the main ingredient and should move on to goals and motivation… because passion can fade without them.

Self Discipline

Passion by itself is a strong tool, and provides ambition, but without direction and discipline its hard to focus and accomplish what you NEED to do. At times passion doesn’t cover every nook and cranny of a dream, and it takes self-motivation through discipline to accomplish those petty tasks. For example, with Chosen, I had the dream of starting my own Web Development company. My passion for web design and development are enough to motivate me in both, but starting a business is more than just design and development. I’ve had to learn more about taxes, been the consultant, salesman, project manager, etc. I’m not passionate about all of these tasks, so I must discipline myself to accomplish the tasks that need to be done just as much as that tasks that I want to do.

Goals

Many studies have shown that roughly 97% of the people in the world do NOT have goals, and that the other 3% that do almost always succeed in meeting them… this statistic is so true and I can testify to it. People often ask me how it is that I was able to start a family (wife and kid at the age of 20) and still purchase a new home, renovate it, buy new computers/toys/frig/etc all in the same year, while only having been a year out of college. No, I didn’t have any help from any family. I did this on my own by setting goals. I started Chosen by setting goals. They’re very real and they work wonders. I could go on and on about goals, but I think it would be best for you to simply read my post about goal setting.

Consider this
Gas has been cheaper in the last 3 months than it has been in over 2 years!
Produce sales haven’t escalated beyond normal scale
Inflation hasn’t risen dramatically

So what really is the source of this recession?! It’s all negative media. Like I said, recession has become a buzzword.

Let’s face it, people tend to be negative. What do you search for on youtube when you’re bored? I bet it’s not world causes or positive messages and uplifting words. No, you’re probably looking up worst car crashes, fights, celebrities at their worst, etc. This is what people want.. drama, and the media has fed us exactly what we’ve been craving for years.

But we’ve had too much…

People are getting sick of hearing the word recession. Business and families are being dramatically influenced and people are hurting. The only way to get rid of the recession is to reverse our thinking. Our thinking towards spending, and what we soak in from the media on a daily basis.

I’m making an effort to stand for something greater than myself.. will you join me?

[podcast format="video"]http://thinkclay.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/against-recession-hype.m4v[/podcast]

Timing is everything

We all know that time is money, but I found that it’s also important to make sure that you’re designating time appropriately. For example, my website was at the old domain of new-age-design.com and my color scheme was quite nasty. I knew that I needed to change both qualities if I wanted more traffic and visitor loyalty on my blog, but I prolonged making the changes because I wouldn’t directly make money from them. Recently it struck me that my logic was flawed, however. My website is a direct representation of me, and if I don’t allocate time to take care of myself, then I’m not going to be appealing to new clients (this relates to hygiene as well). Therefore I realized I needed to spend some time and take care of my site.

This is where timing is everything. The best way to find time is to treat time like a budget. Figure out what you have, what you need and what you want. Start a calendar and populate it with the needs first, and then pencil in and allocate time where you can for wants, to-do, and other tasks. I did this on a white board and now everyone in Chosen is following this practice.

Task Management

When we first started Chosen, we didn’t realize the importance or need for a task manager. We got by sharing information and collaborating via Google Docs, instant messaging and email. Over time we began to lose information and our attempts to stay organized by using folder and file naming conventions failed miserably.

We decided to make the switch and installed Active Collab on our server. Once we did we immediately saw amazing results and improvement in organization. I highly recommend getting a well developed task manager, whether you’re a freelancer or large business. Some of the better ones that we have worked with are Active Collab and Basecamp.

Peer Accountability

It’s easy to lose track or managing yourself. Even if you’re self-motivated and have a lot of drive, everyone may lose site of the goal at hand and get off track, or disorganized. An easy way to fix this is having someone or something remind you of your plans or tasks. Ideally its best to have a business partner, friend, family, or any other sentient being play this role in holding you accountable. However, if you’re like I was at one point in my life, reliable friends or business partners can be hard to come by, so do some searching and see if you can find a good application or tool to achieve the same result. Maybe having a task manger or automated to-do list that send you alerts and reminders? I’ll leave that up to you, feel free to comment and let me know if you know of something useful.

Note-taking, wherever, whenever

This is a must. We can all relate to having a great idea, or hearing something useful, or remembering something we need to do later.. if you don’t jot it down, then and there, you’re likely to forget it. Plain and simple, get something that fits in your pocket to take notes on. I use my iPhone, and there are many other phones that work great for writing notes or voice recorded notes. If you prefer pen and paper, grab a little wallet-sized notepad from the dollar store or elsewhere and take it with you all the time. Heck, even a little folded piece of paper that you keep in your wallet works better than your memory sometimes.

Think it, write it, say it

I started blogging to stay more organized. There was a time when I would try and store and categorize bookmarks of web pages and refer to those bookmarks whenever I needed to recall something I read. Then I read a book on the human brain and memory, and discovered that if you follow a process of learning, writing, and doing you will remember it at least 10 times easier than you would have just forming the thought or reading an article. I try to make a habit now of using bookmarks as a sort of “short-term” memory, in which I bookmark things of interest, and then when I schedule some free time, I collect those thoughts and bookmarks and write them down and share them in a blog post, and then delete the bookmark. This has helped me learn SO MUCH in such a short amount of time, as well as helped others find and reference information. As an added bonus, if you forget it, you just search your own blog, and it’s there, like having a second memory!

So that’s a quick look at 5 Ways to Stay Organized. Let me know if you have any other ideas or suggestions for better organization.

What is a leader?

There are all kinds of leaders, and by itself, the word ‘leader’ means very little. The key to leadership is the specific kind of leader you are and how well you execute your skills and abilities.

Level 1: Superficial Leadership
These are usually self-proclaimed leaders. They brag themselves up and look to themselves to be leaders for the title and authority, but not because they are looking to manage responsibility and truly lead in the best interest of their followers. These leaders are everywhere and some even seem like good leaders because of their self-confidence, but be careful not to confuse arrogance with confidence because arrogance is a bad quality to have as a leader, and almost always indicates poor leadership ability.

Level 2: Average Leadership
So many leaders fall into this second-level category of average leadership. It’s hard to be a great leader, and it takes a perfect balance and blend of good qualities, but many leaders can get buy as average. An average leader is still successful, can still lead people well, and can be very strong. This is where most people fall in leadership as far as family, friends, and business and there’s nothing wrong with that but… if you’re looking to be a great leader, there’s more!

Level 3: Pacesetting Leadership
What separates a leader from average and great pacesetting leadership is their balance in personality and ambition. There are seven main qualities that are key ingredients to becoming a great leader.

The Seven Qualities of a Great Pacesetting Leader

1. Faith-filled Positive Attitude
2. Steady and dedicated Purpose and Mission
3. Goal Oriented Action and Results
4. A Desire to Serve and Labor
5. Strong Management and Communication
6. Commitment to Excellence and Quality
7. A Proprietary Disposition

Have you read my post on the Steps to Set and Achieve Goals? If not check it out!