Facebook’s advertising business is soaring. Yet the performance of the average Facebook ad is abysmal.
At
least that’s according to a new report issued by the analytics firm
Webtrends, which recently examined 11,000 different Facebook ad
campaigns which totaled 4.5 billion impressions. Webtrends found that
in 2009 the average clickthrough rate on Facebook was 0.063 percent.
That figure slipped to 0.051 percent in 2010.
Because of that decline, CPMs on Facebook have crept upward, going from 17 cents in 2009 to 25 cents by last year.
The
only ad categories that were able to crack 0.1 percent clickthrough
rates were "tabloids and blogs" (0.165 percent) and "media and
entertainment" (0.154 percent). The worst performing ad category on
Facebook, per Webtrends, was health care, which generated 0.011 percent
clickthrough rates and an average cost-per-click of $1.27.
However,
Facebook’s CPMs are still relatively low in the grand scheme of things
(consider that video ads on Hulu can sometimes fetch $50 CPMs). And
while many advertiser turn to Facebook to drive traffic or sell
products, many traditional brands use the site for its social value,
not its propensity to drive clicks.
Yet even "social ads"—at
least as defined by Webtrends—are only effective for so long. “Out of
the ads we measured, we found that interest-targeted ads began to burn
out after three to five days,” reads the report. “Eventually the
rotting CTR leads to Facebook deactivating the ad, and it’s back to the
drawing board.”
Regardless, advertisers continue to flock to
Facebook. According to eMarketer, ad spending on Facebook will reach
$2.19 billion in the U.S. in 2011 and close to $4 billion worldwide.
8 Ways Social Media Has Changed Our Lives
As we head into our Mashable Social Media Day festivities, we’d like to
take a look at the effect social media has had on our daily lives.
Users for Sale: Has Digital Illiteracy Turned Us Into Social Commodities?
Many of us experience the web through discrete corporate channels such
as Google and Facebook that probably don’t have our best interests at
heart. Are we ceding our last hope of free information to marketers and
corporations?
Tech & Mobile
3 Fresh Apps for Finders, Keepers & Seekers
Our selections this weekend include one for wannabe freelance tour
guides, another for the digital organizer and a third one for pure
entertainment seekers.
3 Simple Ways Tech Can Grow Greener Cities
We don’t need to go that far to make our cities more energy-efficient.
Urban planner Peter Calthorpe discusses the ways tech can improve the
quality of life in your city.
Top 10 Most Memorable GoDaddy Ads [VIDEOS]
In honor of GoDaddy’s $2.5 billion sale, we’re humoring your curiosity
by featuring its most controversial and memorable ads.
HOW TO: Land a Job at LinkedIn
Brendan Browne, LinkedIn’s director of global talent acquisition,
discusses how LinkedIn job applicants can stand out from the crowd.
9 Steps to Consider When Valuing Your Startup
Determining your startup’s worth is one of the hardest parts of the
fundraising process. We’ve devised a few considerations to help value
your company.
HOW TO: Claim Your Business On Facebook Places
Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to help you claim your small business
on Facebook Places — once you claim it, you can start advertising.
HOW TO: Unify Your SEO & SEM Strategies
Search engine marketing and search engine optimization are no longer
two separate disciplines. Here are 3 tips for getting them to work in
sync.
Do Celebrities Really Help Online Causes?
Celebrities have established a ubiquitous presence in social good
campaigns, but are your idols helping or hurting online philanthropy?
Why Do People Follow Brands? [INFOGRAPHIC]
What makes people want to follow their favorite brands on
friend-focused networks such as Facebook? Get Satisfaction has the
answers.
1. Throw out
non-essential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the
doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.
2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down..
3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening,
whatever. Never let the brain idle. " An idle mind is the devil's
workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is
with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets,
keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish
your health: if it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it.
If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don't
take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to
a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
And always remember: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but
by the moments that take our breath away.
Being
effective is learning to do 'that which produces the desired result'. If you
want to be extremely successful in business or very happy in life or achieve
some large goal, then being effective is consistently doing the things
that will bring about the results you are after. Perhaps the
best overall prescription for becoming effective is contained within Stephen Covey's best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People. Published by Simon & Schuster, this book provides a
useful, sequential framework for understanding much about the process of Personal Development.
Covey does not claim to have invented the 7 habits, but rather to
have discovered them and to have found a simple language for articulating them.
In fact, he says that these basic principles of effectiveness may be found in
all world religions; and it can be noted that many highly successful people
seem to have naturally developed them.
It is perhaps
a great compliment to Stephen
Covey that today, the substance of this first habit is deeply embedded into
the management psyche. We are told, in business, that we should be proactive; and broadly what is meant by that is to
focus our efforts and attention on the long-term and to think in terms of the
long-term consequences of our actions.
Covey
contrasts being proactive or having a proactive mentality with being reactive.
Reactive people, he says, are those who are resigned to the truth that whatever
they do in the present can have no effect on their circumstances. And
interestingly, for reactive people, it really is a truth, for whatever we
believe in our heart affects our thoughts, words and actions. If
we really believe that we can do nothing about our unreasonable boss or the
daily events in our lives, then we simply do not make the effort.
Proactive
people, on the other hand, simply will not accept that there is nothing that
can be done about the unreasonable boss or the events of daily life - they will
point out that there are always choices. It is by the decisions we make, our
responses to people, events and circumstances that proactive people can and do
affect the future. We may have no control over what life throws at us but we
always have a choice about how we are to respond.
Now this
notion that having a particular attitude of mind (which is really where this
habit begins) can make such a huge and positive difference to almost everything
we experience in life is foreign to those who have already internalised the
opposite habit as a part of their personalities. For some people, the glass is
always half-empty and the feeling of melancholy is a pleasant reminder that
something is indeed missing. For such people, this habit represents a bitter
pill to swallow - but, says Covey, it is also completely liberating.
When we are
finally prepared to accept full responsibility for the effects that are
manifest in our lives; when we have the strength of character to admit it when
we make mistakes (even big ones); when we are completely free to exercise the
options available to us in every situation; then it can be said that we have
finally internalised this habit. The other six of the habitsrequire
that we first work on our basic character by
becoming proactive and thereby transforming ourselves into men and
women of integrity.
Many people
in the west identify with the frustration of success. Being successful at their chosen career and
committed to its progress they come to realise that it does not, in the final
analysis, bring any sense of real satisfaction. The reason for this ultimate
dissatisfaction is that they did not begin
with the end in mind. For many people, it is not just that they did
not begin with the end in mind;
it goes a bit deeper - they did not ever get around to defining the end itself and so they simply
could not begin with the end in mind.
So what does all this mean? The end
represents the purpose of
your life. Until you can say what that purpose is, with assurance, then you
just cannot direct your life in the manner that would bring you the greatest
satisfaction.
There are no short-cuts
here. To engage in this habit, you need to have a dream, define your own vision
and get into the practice of setting goals which will allow you to make measurable
progress toward the dream. If you practice a faith, then you will want to
consider how this affects your purpose in life; if you do not, you will still
need to get involved in deep self-examination to find out exactly what it is
that will bring you fulfilment. To help you with this, you may wish to obtain
my E-Book The Deepest Desire of Your Heart; available from this
site. The book contains some excellent self-reflection exercises you can use to
focus your mind on what is most important to you in life.
Until you
have defined your vision - the big dream to which you will be working - you
will be unable to move on to habit 3 which provides a basic framework for you
to re-align your efforts so that you will ultimately achieve your heart's desire.
Following the
amazing popularity of his work on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,
Stephen Covey published a second book that deals with the 7
Habits; and the title of that book is also First Things First. Both the
book and this habit deal with subject of managing your time effectively.
Consider the
simple 2 x 2 matrix shown below. It plots the concepts of urgency and importance against each other; and represents where you
are spending your time. To really understand and apply this habit, you need to
have first done habit 2 - that is, you should already have defined what is
important to you. Without first doing this, habit 3 has no power because you
simply cannot separate what is important from what is not important.
This
representation shows four categories of demand which may be made on your time.
Quadrant 1 consists of activities which are both urgent and important
- in other words, things to which you absolutely must attend. Why must you do
these things? Because they are important
- meaning that they contribute to your mission; and they are urgent - meaning that they have some
sort of deadline associated with them.
Choices about
where to invest your time really are made in the other categories; and most
people - driven by the concept of urgency - get drawn into Quadrant 3; doing
things that consume their time but do not contribute to their goals. Highly
Effective People (yes they all fit together you see) understand that the
high leverage activities are all Quadrant 2 - important
but not urgent. Planning,
preparation, prevention, relationship-building, reading, improving your
professional knowledge and exercise are all examples of Quadrant 2 activity -
not an exhaustive list, by any means.
We all
intuitively know that Quadrant 2 activities are the key to getting results;
but you need to have internalised the first two habits before you can benefit
from the high leverage this habit brings. In other words, you first need to
have developed the strength of character (proactivity) which allows you to be
able to say no to demands on
your time that fall into Quadrants 2 and 3; and you also need to have defined
what importance means for you
- otherwise the Quadrants do not exist.
Put habits
1,2 and 3 together and you have the ultimate success formula. Stated simply -
get your mind right; define what is important; then organise your life to
maximise your Quadrant 2 efforts. By spending appropriate time on
Quadrant 2 activities, you will gain control over the circumstances of your
life; Quadrant 1 will actually get smaller because you will have anticipated
and prepared for much Quadrant 1 activity. Concentrating on Quadrant 2 is
absolutely fundamental to achieving success. You might like to take a look at
the4tm Spreadsheet, available from this site, which can help you
to make this key adjustment in the use of your time.
The next of the 7 Habits is - Think Win-Win.
This habit is again an attitude of mind. It concerns fostering an attitude that
is committed to always finding solutions that will truly benefit both sides of a dispute. Solutions do
not, of course, exist in themselves; they must be created. And, even if we
cannot see the solution to a particular problem, it does not mean that no such
solution exists. The win-win idea is not based upon compromise - that is where
most disputes naturally end. But compromise is the result of not properly
perceiving the possible synergy of the situation.
The more you practice this habit, the more committed you
will become as you find solutions which truly do benefit both parties, where
originally it looked as if no such agreement might be reached. Covey has
amended the wording of this habit slightly in recent years to read: Think Win-Win or No Deal. This attitude
works well because it liberates the individuals concerned from the effort of
trying to persuade the opposite party to shift ground or compromise. The effort
is instead spend on trying to understand, which is where habit 5 comes in - you
see, they are also sequential.
The fifth
habit is - Seek First to Understand. What most people do, naturally,
when involved in some type of discussion, meeting or dialogue is exactly the
reverse - they seek first to be understood. And, as Stephen
Covey says, when both parties are trying to be understood, neither party is
really listening; he calls such an interaction, 'the dialogue of the deaf'.
This habit is an important key to inter-personal relationships and it seems to
be almost magical in its ability to transform the course of discussions. Why?
Because by making the investment of time and effort required to understand the other
party, the dynamics of the interchange are subtly affected.
This habit is
not just about letting the other person speak first; it concerns actually
making the effort to understand what is being said. It is about understanding
that our natural habit of mind is to misunderstand. When we are engaged in
conversation, error is always present. NLP tells us that we
simply make our own meaning based on our own experiences and
understanding of life; and frequently we make the wrong meaning. You might like
to take a look at the answers given by school-children on history
exams which illustrates this principle - we are no different!
If however,
we are prepared to invest the time and effort to really understand the other
person's position; and to get into the habit of spending the first part of the
discussion doing so; then, when it is felt by the other person that you do
indeed understand, the dynamic changes. People become more open, more
teachable, more interested in what you may have to say and with the mutual
understanding that flows from this habit, you are ready to practice habit 6;
which concerns finding creative solutions.
The sixth of
the habits is - Synergize. This habit involves you putting your head
together with the other party or parties in order to creatively brainstorm a
synergistic solution to a problem i.e. to find a solution which contains win-win benefits. It can only be done
successfully if you have first practiced habits 4 and 5. The well-known
definition of synergy is as follows:
Synergy -
When the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Finding a
synergistic solution means finding a solution which is better than
either party might first propose. Such a solution can only be found if both
parties truly understand the other parties position - the fruit of habits 4 and
5. There have been many books written on successful brainstorming techniques;
my own favourite techniques are those proposed by Edward DeBono - professor of thinking and perhaps most
famous for Lateral Thinking.
Putting habit
4, 5 and 6 together, you have a perfect model for human interaction. Put
simply: first be mentally committed to the idea that a solution that will
benefit all parties may be constructed; next invest the necessary time and
effort to really understand the other party and do that first; finally
creatively brainstorm a synergistic solution - a natural product of mutual
understanding and respect.
The last
habit of the 7 Habits is - Sharpen the Saw. In this habit, you
are the saw; and to Sharpen the Saw is to become better, keener and more
effective. Highly Effective People always take time to Sharpen the Saw.
What is meant by Sharpening the Saw
is to regularly engage in the exercise of the three dimensions which make up
the human condition: body, mind and spirit. Covey also adds a fourth dimension
- the inter-personal.
Spiritual
Exercise
Let us begin
by considering Spiritual Exercise - this is the area which is perhaps the most
misunderstood. I believe that, in the west, we have become spiritually blind.
The progress of our science, education and technology has lead us to construct
a view of the world and the universe that excludes the agency of God. Freud
famously said that it was man that made God 'in the image of his father'. It
is, of course, a very clever statement and not one I wish to here challenge -
whether this statement or the reverse is true is for you to decide. However, as
the west has, by and large, abandoned faith in the creator God, so it has
simultaneously abandoned the idea that life has any meaning or purpose; and it
is purpose and direction in life that this habit
refers to as Spiritual Exercise. Of course, if you are a religious person, then
there will be a tie-up here with your personal faith; however, if you are not
religious, don't also abandon the idea that life holds a special purpose for
you.
To exercise
spiritually, I recommend that you consider engaging in some form of meditation.
Meditation involves regularly sitting in a relaxed position and thinking about
nothing for a period of about 10 or 15 minutes. Why this practice should bring
about any material benefits is an interesting question. You might consider that
you relax your mind quite enough when you sleep, but it turns out that we don't
really relax our minds when we sleep. The brain is active during sleep - during
REM sleep, the brain appears to be processing information. Though it is not yet
known exactly what it is doing, the brain is certainly not passive and so the
mind is not relaxed during sleep. Meditation is the practice of disciplining
the mind, It is difficult to do at first, but if you stick with it, positive
health benefits will follow.
Making use of
Jack
Black's House on the Right Bank is an excellent tool
for combining what is really guided meditation with the practice of regularly
reviewing your mission, your roles and your goals; and that is what Stephen
Covey means when he talks about spiritual exercise - the regular, review
and preview of the things that are most important to you in life. These are the first things that you must define in
habit 2 - Begin with the End in Mind.
Physical
Exercise
Regular aerobic,
physical exercise is essential for health, energy and a feeling of well-being.
Naturally, you should always consult your doctor or physician before you embark
upon any course of physical exercise; and it should be obvious that such
professional advice as may be given, should always be taken into account.
To practice
this part of Habit 7 requires that you commit to at least three sessions of at
least twenty minutes per week. If you are not already engaged in this sort of
exercise, you will find that after a period of about six weeks, you will feel
much better, much healthier and indeed your body will become more efficient at
processing oxygen - which is the key to energy.
Mental
Exercise
Ask yourself
these questions. What am I doing to sharpen my mind? Am I engaged in a
programme of education or learning of some kind? What am I doing to improve my
professional knowledge?
How you
should go about this part of the habit is, of course, for you to decide, but
you should ensure that you are reading regularly. What should you read?
Naturally you want to put in the good stuff - so it's not a case of reading for
its own sake; it is reading carefully selected material which allows you to
broaden and deepen your understanding.
You will
naturally be paying particular attention to the important areas you defined in
habit 2, but you should also consider reading all the great works of literature
and also ancient wisdom literature which includes books like The Psalms
and Proverbs..
Interpersonal
This part is not really a discipline, as are the other three parts, it is
really a commitment; and for me, I make the commitment during the spiritual
part of the habit, that is, during a meditation. It is simply to commit to
approaching inter-personal relationships by making use of habits 4, 5 and 6.
Even if
people approach me making use of language, actions, or behaviour which I
personally believe to be inappropriate, my commitment is to not react, but to use my proactive capacity to engage in the
exercise of habits 4, 5 and 6 which I believe will lead to the best possible
outcome in such circumstances
So maybe you’ve begun developing a small but growing community of
interested online “fans”. Hopefully you’re building your dedicated
community of fans by being a “trust agent” (Chris Brogan), delivering
value and dedicating yourself to “being remarkable” (Seth Godin).
But, once you’ve begun to develop this “fan community” what
are the best strategies to increase loyalty, keep them active &
create conversions?
The marketing guru’s who’ve built hundreds of thousands of people on
their “fan lists” for years would say “market them hard!”. Yet you
know internally that you shouldn’t be spamming them relentlessly
(because you know how it feels to be pitched multiple times a day) with
an attractive, shiny headline “spinner bait” being trolled along the
top of the email marketing water to lure you into clicking & buying
their stuff.
Online marketing has changed dramatically in the 5-10 yrs since many
of those “experts” became successful and accumulated their lists. The
average online navigator is far less naive, there is far more
competition to delineate yourself from and thus their methods are
terribly outdated. But they already have their huge community to do
their “email telemarketing” so what do they care.
In today’s marketing climate with so many options out there, the
average internet prospect is both “jaded” from being burned & far
more intelligent. Trust me, you don’t want to immediately think “I
want to monetize my community & cash in!” as a main focus.
You attracted them because of value, now I propose to you that you
bring them closer as a result of…. well, even greater value! Give them
what they want and you don’t have to try and “Mass Control” anyone.
(yes, I know, I do like Frank but never liked the product name).
I want to give you 10 things that you can do to grow your community,
increase long-term sales and avoid causing them to get the “bait &
switch” sickness (ie. you got me to follow because I believed you
brought value and now you deluge me with marketing crap). That “virus”
is the most powerful cause for community inactivity, complacency and
number shrinkage.
Here are the Top 10 ways to develop loyalty in your brand,
increase conversions and grow you’re community of “active” followers
long term:
Provide Personalized Engagement & Acknowledgment Without Hard Selling! (This is #1 for a reason) It’s not social media MARKETING; it’s SOCIAL
media marketing. They aren’t numbers, prospects or represent future
sales. They are people who want to be engaged with, by YOU in some
form that enriches their day. The individual, no matter how
“influential” (or not), deserves to be respected as a human being with
value (apart from what you feel they may represent to your bank
account). Although I personally auto-tweet helpful content I also
interact all the time. Any mentions, retweets etc. I always
personally send a thank you, check in and see how people are doing,
how’s their marketing efforts are going, how’s their family etc.
without ever even thinking of asking for business. This is true on
Facebook, site comments etc. This is a theme you’ll see in this list
but work to be seen as an ASSET! If you do that, good things ALWAYS
happen with your business!
Be A Connector Of The Like Minded & The Center Of The Win-Win Scenarios.
Evangelists are fueled by meeting other believers. If you connect them
with each other, the value of your network grows. There’s actually a
mathematical formula that backs this up. It’s called Reed’s Law. As Chris Brogan states “work to be at the elbow of every deal you can… be a connector”
Understand Their CORE Motivation. They aren’t
connecting to you because of what you do. As Simon Sinek brilliantly
put it, “people don’t buy what you do, people buy why you do it.” And
she’s 100% correct. It’s not enough to do the right thing; you want to
convince those you are attracting that you are doing it for the right
reasons, for their best interest. In today’s online marketing climate
this has NEVER been more vital! Figure that out and you’ll be able to
give them more of what they want. In order to do that you need to have
profiled who you’re the target market is that you are pursuing, what’s
deeply important to them and what their key motivators are (see told
you I like Kern).
Offer Frequent Opportunities To Participate. Don’t
just offer simple contests; offer involvement. Trust me; it’s the
difference between watching the movie “Top Gun” and sitting in the
cockpit of an F-18. Nothing creates more trusting loyalty than active
participatory opportunities. TMZ.com
does a great job with this at the bottom of most of their posts they
offer a applicable poll question as well as a compelling comment
question. Drudge Retort does a great job of this as well. It’s the reason they garner thousands of comments per post!
Keep Your Participation Uniquely Relevant To Them.
You don’t want to pull a topic “180” that undermines your credibility.
If you’re at my house and I’m talking about landscaping, you wouldn’t
blurt out “Hey, when will you finally buy my freakin stuff?” Your
social point of contact is “your house” – be kind to your guests. If
it appears you are doing one only to get the other then your reputation
is already compromised. Yes you are here to make money but there is a
science… a method to the online marketing madness using social media.
You’ve got to understand that your relevant helpful content alone
cements your reputation and is in itself “marketing”.
Be A Quality Content Aggregator. As you’ve heard
me quote him before,Clay Shirky said, “It’s not information overload,
it’s filter failure.” Be the filter for your community about what’s
relevant to them and they won’t have to go other places.
Offer Social Proof Whenever Possible. Comments,
participation & positive reviews do something else, they sell!
Robert Cialdini in his book “Influence” tells us how much we value the
opinions of others and that we subconsciously look for clues in the
behaviors of those we identify with as to what we should do. Let your
community know what others just like them find valuable. Complimenting
yourself makes you an egomaniac, the compliments of others makes you
celebrity-like.
Prioritize Providing A Unique Experience. Create
an experience that brings with it positive emotions. When you give your
community access to unique and valuable information, interact in a way
that makes them feel special etc, it builds loyalty, motivates word of
mouth and more marketing then you could personally do from a mountain
top.
Make What You Provide Usable. You want to create
something that is memorable and reminds them of your value even when
they are not in contact with your site or material. The easiest way to
accomplish this is to provide something that is easy to implement and
use. Making them say “wow that was cool” is one thing. Making them say
“Wow that’s amazing and I know exactly where I can use that” is
essential to being a trust agent and being seen as an invaluable asset.
Seek Opportunities To Provide Value With “No Strings Attached.” The
level of value you provide in your blog/site, the quality of your
social media interaction and your free give away content need to be
able stand on their own. Give some of your best stuff away (some not
all). Why?Tim Sanders has written a great book called “Love is the Killer App,”
and he is 100% right on the money. Think about it; which creates the
better feeling ? “I’ll give you A, if you do B for me” or “here’s A …
just because I think you’re cool?”
Don’t be naive; we are ALL working to build an affiliate network.
We’re building an army of people who will point to your site and tell
others how great of a person you are, how great of an asset you are and
how you’re THEIR friend. They will say it with pride “man you’ve got
to go over the a site called TheBizcoachBlog.com. Patrick has got
years of great content there and his training seriously rocks (yes
shameless plug as an example Lol!). Don’t you want thousands of people
to say that with pride and boast about you and what you have to offer?
If you’re about herding traffic like sheep into pens that lead to a
conversion then you’re taking your instructions from the so called
“guru” examples that you yourself hate & killing your brand
reputation in the process. Work to be seen as an invaluable asset to
people and they will point people to you from their network that your
valuable content & interactions will convert thus creating a
momentous wave.
Brand evangelism truly needs to be the focus of your online
marketing social traffic generation. Once you get that, it might take
a little bit to turn the battleship but trust me…. It WILL turn and
create more business then you can imagine. It’s what I preach, teach
and see proven every day.
When you accumulate a decent size network there comes a time where
you just don’t have the time to wade through the spam, opt-in offer
pages and junk to try and glean the value buried inside. Well guess
what, you’re not alone – so does everyone else. In fact, this task
just got easier for those that take on the valuable role to be a source
of value within the spam storm (and it’s a value added role
that establishes an awesome online identity brand btw).
But taking full advantage of valuable information tweeted by your
network can be daunting. For this reason, Paper.li is a welcome
application offering to help users organize their social media
marketing efforts and be a true twitter connector. Paper.li creates a
familiar, daily- newspaper-like format from Twitter and tweeted links.
It is then automatically tweeted out to your followers.
People who are trying to easily gather content and provide value in
the links they tweet find this free (yes I said FREE) service helpful
and refreshing. It can also help the new Twitter user to stay on top of
all the news and information being shared. The part I liked the most is
that Paper.li can be customized allowing you to easily create an online
newspaper for any of your Twitter network, using any list or even any
niche related hashtag (for example #onlinebiz or #smallbiz ) and create
a useful document for followers.
Here are the specific types of information that Paper.li compiles and organizes for you:
It can extract all tweets that include URLs.
It will then pull the content found on these URLs. This can be:
o blog posts, newspaper articles
o Flickr or Twitpic images
o YouTube video
When selecting a specific keyword or hashtag, it will analyze the text for that topic.
It then amazingly finds the day’s most relevant articles for your
newspaper (they wont let us know how, only that it is the “paper.li
magic.)”
You are able to customize the headline of the newspaper as well.
(The custom editing is only possible of course for a newspaper that is
based on your own Twitter username or list.) Paper.li says your paper
will be updated once a day, but I’ve seemed to notice it updating more
often.
The detractors of Paper.li (mostly heavy twitter users) pose the
criticism that it is creating spam however I feel that it actually is
generating the opposite effect, gleaning the value from the noise,
allowing you to compile and RT to all. In my opinion, just because it
takes very little time after you set it up, does not mean it’s spam.
It’s merely the time efficient compiling of valuable information to
your network. The program is then sent out to your followers with your
newspaper’s authors @names included in the tweet so they get PR for it
too. That’s a win-win in my book.
You can set your twitter newspaper to automatically promote itself
to your followers or you can do it manually as well. You are limited to
using the same Twitter avatar that you use on Twitter, so if you don’t
prefer that profile image you have to change it on Twitter first.
I looked for a way to subscribe outside of Twitter and finally found
it on the “Alert Me” button at the top of each paper (once you’ve
clicked through to the actual Paper.li page for that Twitter user). You
get an e-mail when the new edition comes out. Pretty darn cool I must
admit.
So if you desire to become a “trust agent” by easily bringing high
value content to your network, paper.li is the real deal. This is
especially true for anyone looking to brand themselves as they start an
internet business, work to build an online home business to earn money
or an online network marketing business.
Its strong ROI makes it just too easy not to set in motion and let
it perform your value added work for you. It’s like having an assistant
to review tweets and publish a newsletter with the best stuff every
day. For those of you working to earn money online, trust me, you just
can’t beat it!
Great info from Liz Gannes:
Twitter just previewed its long-awaited Web analytics product, based on
data provided about tweets and clicks facilitated by its t.co link
shortening service and “Tweet Button” tool for publishers.
Twitter Business Development Director April Underwood showed off the
analytics product at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, though she said
it is available only in private beta for now. Update: A Twitter developer blog post says analytics will be available to all Web site owners “within the next few weeks.”
Underwood said Twitter drives 100 million clicks per day to external
Web sites. Plus, the Tweet Button is already used by three million
sites.
The analytics tool tracks statistics on tweets “up to a couple
minutes ago,” Underwood said. It will not be as comprehensive as many
analytics tools offered by third-party vendors. However, Twitter will
be releasing click data through an API for other companies to use.
I have often been asked to help others work through issues of
burnout. As a business owner you’ve most likely experienced days (or
weeks) when you feel you’ve been running around like a chicken with
your head cut off and typically when the tail wags the dog you immerge
feeling that you have little or nothing to show for your effort.
Go Back Where It All Started
Whenever I speak with an entrepreneur about potential burnout, I
have them take the opportunity to go back and re-examine their original
purpose. I have found that the process laid out below always results in
ignited productivity, passion and helps preserve their sanity.
The first key is re-igniting your drive which is born from your
internal motivation, your “fire in the belly”. We are never more
productive than when we perform functions because we want to – not
because we have to. One way to motivate your self to achieving this is
to remember the original reasons that motivated you to choose the
business that you’re in. That is; why you chose to pursue the business
opportunity in the first place.
Make a list of all the things you use to love doing; that you were
once passionate before you made them into a task and reexamine when and
why that all changed. It’s usually when you began to think that your
efforts in those areas didn’t make a difference. Give yourself
credit! Seriously, I’ve found that we are our harshest critic which is
why I deal with this deeper later in this post.
I also tell business owners to make a list of all the things that
you have discovered are not up your “expertise” ally and either become
educated in those areas or look for opportunities to cheaply outsource
those tasks. In fact, I have a comprehensive list of those services
that will do almost any task you need for pennies with the “Success
Steps To Building Wealth Online” training because I feel they are so
vital to preventing the burnout of struggling online entrepreneurs. Recognize The Warning Signs
When we first began this entrepreneurial path we took every day and
made the most out of it, enjoying the simple feeling of daily
accomplishment. We were convinced that this was a defining time in our
business life and we were committed to making the most of it however,
much like a chandelier on a dimmer switch, the illumination of that
original inspiration has slowly faded without us noticing. For many of
us, if we do not halt this track, it will translate into full-blown
burnout and can eventually be the beginning of a slow death of our
business. Recalibrate What You Focus On
In order to feel accomplishment through the process again, we need
to define what the process accomplishes or satisfies in us as an
individual. So what’s the question we need to ask ourselves? It’s a
variation of the question “what’s in it for me?” However we need to
alter the question to get the answer we can use. The actual question we
should ask is “what’s in it for me other than money, that fulfills me?”
Take a piece of paper and write down as many answers to that question
that come to mind in 5 minutes.
As entrepreneurs we’ve made the choices we have made because we were
deeply inspired make them. When we force ourselves over a period of
time to perform a function through manufactured motivation it is the
first step toward eventual burnout. It is a sign that you have lost
your original inspiration, which will have a direct adverse-effect on
our drive and focus. It extinguishes that “fire in the belly”; the
foundational purpose that fuels why you do what you do. Unless we
define the main needs in our life that this role can satisfy, we can
never justify any extra effort and sentences us to living our business
life at the lowest common denominator…. we might as well be an employee
and have a regular job! This is the polar opposite of what will sustain
long-term high effort as a result of the deep satisfaction. Rewrite Your Job Description!
So in light of this, how do I relate to the process in a way that
reconnects me with enjoying it on a daily basis? I must basically
redefine my job description in a way that emphasizes the parts of the
process that I most enjoy doing. Note that it does not mean that you
won’t need to perform tasks that you least enjoy but rather it allows
you to acquire the motivation to do them. What fulfills me daily is to
tirelessly work to unlock the potential of others who truly want that
for themselves. Everyday I am inspired to coach my team and my clients
to individually attain their defined short-term and long term goals
while experiencing a sense of accomplishment throughout every step of
the process. Enjoying The Process Again & Rewarding Yourself
Your road map to success is not solely focusing on the end result
but rather the daily process, which if executed vigorously, will
ultimately give you the results you desire. I cannot say this strongly
enough: allowing yourself to take satisfaction in the daily process is
paramount. We are all able to feel that sense of accomplishment when we
concentrate on the A+B of the success formula on a daily basis and not
focus solely on the end result (i.e. monetary results). Notice I said
“not solely”. Satisfaction from our end results and goal attainment is
important but it also comes far more naturally.
I’m suggesting that one just cannot starve themselves on
satisfaction, only to binge like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat
buffet when they reach a long term goal. That method causes the
individual to appear to others as an ego-maniac when they experience
success because of the co-dependant relationship they have developed
with it. No one else understands that they are actually eating all they
can now because they have no idea when the next time they’ll be allowed
to dine on satisfaction again. Conclusion
If you set daily activity goals, you can feel satisfaction in your
job everyday (make certain that you reward your self when you reach
those). Remember: The only way to achieve any long-term end result is
to focus on being fulfilled through the process on a daily basis, which
naturally results in greater effort. There will be no need for a forced
increased in daily discipline when you enjoy and are fulfilled through
the daily processes you accomplish. The 5 Keys to avoid burnout and maintaining a healthy daily perspective are:
Define what you truly enjoy in your present business role.
Seperate those functions that you are passionate about from those
you struggle to effectively perform and look for opportunities to
delegate or cheaply outsource those functions.
Make your goals to reflect daily activities you can control
rewarding yourself when you reach them knowing that they will
eventually result in growth over the long haul.
Don’t negatively evaluate yourself on results you can’t control – it will damage your efforts to control the things you can.
It is practically impossible for you to be a successful,
inspirational entrepreneur if you believe what you do is only about the
bottom line…. so don’t let it be!
So take a business time-out, recalibrate, refocus and re-ignite the excitement about what you do!
Above the strategies and techniques that I teach, any time I am
working with an online marketer, it doesn’t matter what business
(self-branding information marketing, network marketing, affiliate
marketing, monetized blogging etc) the daily foundational focus of
their business needs to be built on the following 4 pillars.
1) No matter what happens; stick with it! The only way not to succeed is to give up.
Remind yourself everyday of the reasons you first began your
pursuit. I personally know myriads of people who became successful just
a few months after seriously being tempted to quit and give up.
Become convinced that you’re practically guaranteed to reach your
goals if you don’t give up. You might make changes to your business,
your offering, your marketing strategy etc but that’s part of the
process. Sticking with it for the long haul will get you there!
2) Commitment to daily self development
The temptation is to totally bypass this as it is seen as a
“non-revenue generating” function but don’t fall into that trap.
You’re business is your decision to invest your effort into something
that can dramatically impact your life.
Daily time taken for self development is a crucial step to remain
grounded, to grow and it is an investment into developing the “source”
of that effort. More people quit when faced with challenges as they
start out because they negate self-development.
3) Scheduling short-term objectives in the evening for the following day
You have big dreams, long-term aspirations and goals. You might
even have short term goals as well. Having said that, if you don’t
have short term objectives created so that when you wake up in the
morning you have things to start to run and do then you’re hamstrung
right out of the gate that day. If you want to be successful in this
business, you have to run it like a business not a hobby!
Get your list, mark it off and feel a great sense of accomplishment
when you do! In the initial building process, for many it can feel
overwhelming as you set up the mechanism that will generate your income
stream. You need to feel excited when you complete the tasks for that
day that brought you steps closer to making that your reality.
4) Be an unashamed, undeterred, sold out, balls-to-the-wall evangelist for your business, your offering and your brand!
I’ve discussed how to market without pissing people off and there
are definitely some rules of etiquette to follow when doing so but
understand this; your commitment to the passionate promotion of your
offering, your brand and what your business stands for is paramount to
your success. Know that you are going to piss people off regardless in
fact, if you aren’t annoying anyone then you’re probably way too
passive.
Having said that, if you are growing any online business to generate
revenue you need to have a balls to the wall attitude however there is
a common pitfall among most energetic and passionate marketers. Many
will try to shove their offer down everyone’s throat and when they
don’t respond positively, dismiss and write them off, leaving the
person with a bad taste in their mouth. The problem is that because
they don’t ask questions and listen to learn needs, they piss off two
other groups; potential marketing partners as well as the future
prospects that would convert.
Instead, market your personal brand, your business and your offering by energetically and passionately appealing to:
prospects that have needs your business or offering can satisfy now
when someone is “not interested” you make sure you don’t burn bridges to future sales
while also searching out marketing & advertising partnerships….
Because you need to appeal to all three! Otherwise, along with
alienating the other 2/3rds of your market you’ll be killing your
branding and reputation.
When working with new or struggling online home business owners I’m inevitably asked what is the most important thing to learn in order to be successful making money online. For those who are either aspiring Internet & affiliate marketing or online network marketing successes, my answer is the same. It’s not a single marketing process or technique, nor is it becoming proficient in sales copy writing, blog set-up, site SEO, social media marketing or attracting waves of traffic. Hell, all those my friends I can teach and you can learn.
My answer revolves around the common thread that those who reach the 6-figure mark
(9K+a month) have mastered which conversely, those that do not succeed
are lacking. Those that have become successful all started their
journey differently. Some were out of work and jumped in head on, others could devote 2-4 hrs a day and then the weekends to making their vision become a reality. For some it took just a few short months while others pursued niche markets that took longer to penetrate, sometimes even years….. but what is their common denominator?
In my experience, many act committed but are what I call “closet fence sitters“. They’re just one failure away from giving up on their dream (and thus themselves). In all my training I’ve never known one who became successful without altering that perspective, burning the ships that would take them home & committing their entire being to making what they envisioned a reality. That is the gauntlet, the pre-requisite, the crucible if you will for success to grow.
The common denominator is an unwavering commitment that is nailed to the wall by a passionate pursuit, the internal fire of which they will not let die! Know this; if you get this tool in your tool box you will be successful. Everyone who has mastered it has! But the journey to success is not a straight path but a maze in a dark room. You will hit road blocks but your undying pursuit will guarantee success.
That means if you have 2-4 hrs everyday to devote to building your retirement then you commit to doing that every day….not because you have to, but because you have a burning desire to achieve it and can’t stop yourself! You recognize that this is the only way you can make the most dramatic long-term impact in your life and the life of those you love.
This my friends, is the common denominator. It doesn’t matter what you “do” or “don’t know” when you start out because your passionate commitment from your burning determination will push you past any deficiencies and empower you to learn everything needed to be successful….but only if you are truly committed to weather all storms and take the failures as part of the journey, going back to the drawing board to retool and redouble your effort when they come.
The bottom line is that whatever you want to get in life, if you give it a sold-out commitment that’s nailed to the wall by a passionate fire that won’t quench, success is not a matter of “if” but “when”. Whatever your pursuit, know that the foundation must be built on that and nothing less, or the house will crumble when the storms come.
Well this is more of an read than a tutorial but I am sure you will find it most interesting.
1.Did you know that your short-term memory has a max capacity of seven
Humans have three forms of memory: sensory, long-term and short-term.
Long-term memory is like hard-drive space, while short-term memory is like a very small RAM.
This short-term memory can hold only about five to nine informations at
time. Remembering information longer than this requires you to either
compress it down into seven units or store it in long-term memory.
Did you know that most phone numbers are only seven digits!!
Why did you think its so.
Tip: This can be useful if you are doxing someone.
2.Chartreuse is the most visible color.
Yellow-green, chartreuse, sits right in the middle of the frequencies
of visible light making it easy to spot. In some cities, firetrucks
have been changed from red to a yellow-green color to make them more
visible.
Tip: You wanna put something people will notice or you wanna be noticed?
3.You have an instant playback feature.
Imagine you are in school and have to answer some questions to teacher
to get good grade and in meantime while you concentrated on it someone
said something about you. After you're done you will hear what that
person told you even if you didn't listen. This often manifests as Deja
vu.
Tip: Well I don't know how to use this but I am sure you will find a way
4.Too much feelings of danger can lead to feeling pain.
I find this one most useful and its easy to use. If a person has
Phobias its even better. Even those who are not afraid of anything
imagine your self in a small crate that is about to be buried and you
yell and no one hears you even if there are people around you. Well
that is my friends greatest fear try to find yours or from someone
else. Don't expect to torture that person still the felling he will
have isn't nice.
I tested this on my friend and I made him go somewhere else eve if he insisted on staying at this place.
If you wanna know my friend made me go to this coffee bar I don't like.
I go to this greatest fear thing and he told me. I just said imagine
someone closed the door on bathroom when you go in it here and starts
filling it with sand or something. His face just got white even if that
was a joke. My next move was wanna go take a coffee at "other bar he
hates", he said yes.
How does one's
health and lucid dreaming relate? One's memory and sleep order can
affect their lucidity, certain vitimans can boost your rememberance, staying
healthy
is always best if you're getting started in lucid dreaming. In this thread I'm
going
to explain how Omega 3 and vitamins can enhance your lucidity also I will
include some
mp3 voices for you to relax.
Sleep
Having a stable sleeping pattern is essential for practicing how to lucid
dream,
you must be careful of eating directly before sleep and also careful of what
you
eat before you go to bed, known lucid foods are:
Milk
Cheese
Soy Drink
Chocolate (dark)
A really good way to be getting deeper in your lucid dreams is by taking all
the
vitamins you need from food.. if you don't or have defficiency in any vitamin
then I
suggest take tablets like I do sometime.
Omega 3 (Fish
oil and Flaxeed)
There has been many studies that confirm Omega 3 enhances memory and it's
vividness.
Many studies show that people who take Omega 3 on a period of 6 months make
half as
many mistakes when tested.
Don't you wonder if it applies for your dreams as well?
When your dream content is more vivid and intense,
you are more likely to remember it in the morning, so fish oil also indirectly
improves your
dream recall.
Image:
Vitamin B
100 complex
Everyone dreams, but not everyone remembers their dreams as accurate as
others.
Improving your memory will also help you recall your dreams more often.
Vitamins take part in inducing your lucidity, the most important one is the
Vitamin B6.
I wrote a thread about it in details, the amount you can consume and foods that
contain
B6.
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