Destination - The Journey
Written by:
Geoff Flemming
Article Overview: Success is always in the journey
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Destination - The Journey
Creating a business, like doing anythingsignificantin life, requires a range of qualities. Apart from vision and leadership, it will require flexibility, tenacity, openness and definitely a sense of humour. There are points along the way that sometimes appear as opportunities, sometimes as setbacks [sometimes one and the same!]. But the destinations along the way are just that - the distinction between' a destination' as opposed to'the destination'.In thejourney of success there are waypoints - times when we expect one thing to occurwhen it doesn't, but something good occurssomewhere else. Successful people expectgreat results WILL happen without clearly knowinghow theywill occur!
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Article Tags:
Business coaching,
business planning,
crucial conversations,
leaderhsip development
Related Forum Posts
Top 3 List
- Hi Kevin - I would say the top 3 would be:
- John Chow
- ProBlogger
- Entrepreneur's Journey
They are the easiest to understand and cover a wide range of topics on how to be a successful online entrepreneur
Re: Which movie will make the most money this summer?
- Hellboy disappeared from the Top-10 faster than I expected..
Journey To The Center of the Earth was fun (I saw it in 3D), but really suffered from the fact that it didn't have a villain to provide tension.
The problem with Crystal Skull as a family film was that it had that totally unneccessary sequence with the voracious ants eating people alive... I didn't like it when it happened in the Mummy with the beetles, and I didn't like it here!
Dark Knight seems to keep chugging along.
One thing that really irritates me about movies is that sometimes the trailers shown are totally inappropriate for the movie it's preceding. I went to a screening of Wall-E - with a theater full of little kids, and they showed two rather graphic trailers for horror movies! That's totally unacceptable!
7 Top Blog Design Tips
- Most blog platforms come with some basic blog designs. They may call them templates or themes or something similar, and usually they are not bad although some customisation is pretty common. I often see some common mistakes, and hopefully you will be able to avoid them.
1. Include an about page
Make it prominent and make it truly about you, not some resume-like page.If people find your blog and like what you have to say, they are going to want to know something about you.
2. Have contact information visible
An email or maybe even a phone number should be included. Your email can be displayed as a graphic to prevent spammers from harvesting it easily. I would suggest using an address that has your domain at the end to be more professional. e.g tyrone @ internetbusinesspath.com, rather than tyrone @ gmail.com.
Visible contact information will make you seem more real and although people may occasionally contact you, it will be far less often than you might think.
3. Include a picture of yourself
Blogs are personal, even business blogs, and people who visit yours will want to know what you look like. It’s also easier to built trust if your picture is visible. Though, you don’t absolutely need a picture, but it’s strongly recommended. Sometimes people might think you are hiding something if you don’t have one.
4. Show a top posts or articles page
Some of your blog posts are going to be much more popular than others (you may be surprised which ones they are). I call these your pillar articlesDon’t bury your pillar articles, your most popular blog posts. Highlight them somehow. You might for example have a top posts section in the titlebar or sidebar.
I have a most top articles section and I list my most popular posts based on the ones that are read the most. Other people do it slightly differently. For example, Brian Clark at copyblogger.com has a “Popular Articles” in his sidebar and under that he lists his most popular blog posts. Yaro Starak, on his blog Entrepreneurs-Journey, calls his most popular blog posts “Popular Articles” and lists them at the very top.Somehow or another highlight them. You might do something as simple as create a category called “most popular” and include popular blog posts in that category.
5. Don’t have a blog banner that is too big!
The banner is the top portion of your blog that goes across the top. It might have a picture of you there, the name of the blog, perhaps some graphic — they vary quite a bit.You don’t want your banner to be big. No one should need to scroll down to see your content. People decide really quickly when they first reach a Web Site, and that includes blogs, whether to read or to leave.
6. Create a visually appealing blog
Avoid bright colors. Stick to reasonable fonts like Times New Roman and Arial. Have someone with a good eye look at your blog, preferably a graphic designer. Everytime I start a blog and I’ve started dozens for myself, for friends, and for clients, I always get a graphic designer to at least look at it after I am done.
The problem is that it might look OK to you or me, probably neither having a particularly good eye nor appropriate training, but it still might look really ugly to others. Having a graphic designer take a quick look at it is good insurance.
7. Keep it simple silly!
Some blogs are just so busy: they have one, two, sometimes three sidebars just crammed full of all kinds of stuff. With some of it you wonder why is it there. What purpose does this serve? Now in my opinion calendars are a prime offender. What good is a calendar there? Some people like them, but to me they serve no purpose.
Empty space in a blog is not only allowable, but it’s a good thing. It helps focus eyes on what is important, which is your content and hopefully the few things you choose to put in your sidebar.
Most blogs start with a basic template which is then customised over time. These tips will hopefully help you that with customisation and help you avoid common mistakes with blog design.
Tyrone Shum
Blog Tipster
How To Build Great Pillar Content For Your Internet Business
- I’ve found that a successful Internet businesses must start with a solid foundation. As I’ve seen, most Internet businesses will integrate a blog onto their website and start to build a solid foundation of pillar content. Pillar content or pillar articles are posts that are written to help a consumer establish what your Internet business is all about.
What Is Pillar Content?
This termed was first coined by a famous blogger called Yaro Starak at his website Entrepreneur’s Journey. Yaro provides the following detailed definition:
“A pillar is blog content, usually an article, which does some very important things:
* It will bring in a rush of new readers and backlinks (other sites linking to your blog).
* It will continue to bring in more readers over time as you and other people refer to it, even though it may be buried in the archives of your blog.
* Eventually it will bring in traffic from search engines (this is largely because so many other web pages link to it).
* You can list it in a separate area (like an articles page) with all your other pillars so your best content can easily be accessed and your value clearly demonstrated.
* It is not time dependent, so in twelve months’ time it will still be relevant and popular.”
Why Is Pillar Content Important?
Looking at the bigger picture, pillar content is your foundation of your Internet business as it will continue to bring consumers and readers to your website. You may think that just having a product or service to sell is all that’s needed to run a successful business. Not quite so. Consumers today are very hungry for information and want to know more about your business. Therefore providing pillar content relating to your products or services can add value for your consumers and generate more sales for you.
For example, if I were selling a watch online and it had a description and listed features, it may not be enough for a consumer to purchase the watch from my site. Reason being, most people would want to read reviews from others who have purchased this watch and see their feedback. What if I wrote an article about the watch talking about the history and make of it and asked an expert to state their opinion, and had other consumers respond with comments and feedback. Then this would provide social proof and adds value to your product without the consumer leaving your site and spending time looking for more information elsewhere.
Examples Of Pillar Content
Most pillar content articles are longer than 500 words and have lots of practical tips or advice. There are many different forms of pillar content you can create and I have listed some examples below for you to apply to your industry:
1. How To Article - shows people how to do a certain task or instructions on building something
2. Definition Article - defines a term in your industry
3. Present A Theory Or Argument - writing to present some unique thought
4. Release A Significant Resource - a report, podcast, video
5. A “List” Article - it’s very easy to scan and share. Can be a top 10 list or action points
6. Technical Or Visual Guide - a screen capture presentation or how to fix something using a video presentation. It is also a very detailed step by step blueprint on exactly how to complete a task.
Pillars I’ve seen how effective pillar content can be for any Internet business and I recommend you have at least 10 pillar articles on your website before marketing to consumers. That way you’ll provide them with something valuable to read and also gain their interest to come back again. If you can write an article each day using the above examples, then you can build a very strong foundation for your Internet business.
Tyrone Shum
Pillar Article Writer
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