Why Turn To Blogging as a Marketing Tool?
Dec 5, 2007 Prosperity, Success, Time Management, Writing
Professor Moolha knows that independent Professionals have to spend most of their time not with clients but in marketing. Except for the few lucky ones, Professionals are constantly battling to develop new clients and build a bigger business.
Time is the important issue here. Most people who want to become independent and become professionals do so because they don’t like something in their current organization. The overwhelming dislike is the fact that they have to spend so much time for someone else. It may be time in working, it may be in efficiency, it may be the fact that they don’t like to show up to work and be there during a normal work week (9-5 on the time card but we all know that it is more like 8-7 most days).
So how do we become independent workers and make enough money to make us happy? Develop a blog and utilize the new social internet (Web 2.0).
What will your blog get you?
- Reach More People – As you build your blog you will build readership. Utilizing this readership you will be able to reach more people at one time. It is like meeting someone face to face and telling them about your business in a story format. By doing this with a blog you will be telling many people about your business at the same time, but it will feel as if you are talking to one person at a time.
- Targeted – People look for very specific things when they go on the internet. If you have what they want then they will find you. You will in turn get a very focused and targeted group of people reading your blog. Since you have good content they will want to come back time and time again to read your blog and see what you have to say. This will only focus their attention more. You will not be spending time trying to target and convince a group of people who really are not interested. If they stay with your blog you know they will be interested.
- Subtle – Everyone is bombarded with ads these days. No one likes the hard sell. We are simply a smarter Nation now. By using your blog to market your business, and if applicable, sell products, the sell is very subtle. Instead of saying “this is the best product you need to buy it or your life is ruined” you will be writing about he need for a product. Oh by the way we just happen to have it. Or maybe you have a satisfied client who will let you use their story (if you can get a picture it is very powerful). Don’t sell your services or product here. Let them sell it. Let them say what is great about you. It is the soft subtle sell. A great success story. Everyone wants to be successful.
- Less Time – You will be spending less time. A blog post will only take maybe an hour to map out, write, edit, and post. As you do this more your time spent will be less and less. You will not have to spend a whole bunch of time sitting down with a marketing consultant or an ad specialist to develop a strategy. You simply get an idea and write about it. That is it, that is all a blog is. It is an ongoing conversation with you as the leader and your audience as the listeners.
- Anytime – Blogs are great because you can post any time you want. We recommend if you have a big chunk of time write a few posts, you can set WordPress to spread them out over time using their post date stamp function (more about that will be on the way). You don’t just have to work from 9-5, but you can do it anytime. Write a post just before bed, or when you wake up. Have you ever woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to be productive? No one else is awake so what do you do? Write a blog post.
- Anywhere – I personally love to sit at the beach or in a coffee shop to write my posts. It gets me out of the house, I get a good cup of java, or a milkshake and let my surroundings inspire me to write. There are fewer distractions and I get done quicker. Plus the fresh air is great. I can even take my dog and we both get a benefit.
- Free – Everyone likes free. Blogs for the most part are free. As we get into some more advanced topics we can see how we can begin to charge for a “premium blog” but for now lets just get started. As long as the content is coming, and it is free, there will be people to read it. Free is good.
There are probably many more reasons to have a blog, these are just the ones that I have come up with and that I find the most compelling. It is a great way to spend your time marketing and developing your business.
Prof Moolah.
Tags: building a business, business, marketing, professionals, small business
Important Elements Of Time Management
Nov 15, 2007 Time Management
There is a lot to be done in your life and it is only through proper time management that you can hope to achieve your objectives since the available time is limited. Similarly even in your day-to-day chores it is essential that the important elements of time management are understood and orchestrated in the right direction so that you can find success in your ventures. Although it is true that no one knows what will happen the next moment, there is no reason why you should not endeavor to make the most of the present. It is necessary to give due importance to the various elements of time management.
Planning
The basic element of any task, big or small, is planning and nothing can succeed unless the task is properly planned at the very outset. This is also applicable to time management. Planning is the visualization of the different elements of a task and arrangement of these elements according to their importance. Detailed planning will also include the anticipation of the possible problems and obstacles that might come up along the way and the contingency arrangements to deal with these problems. In the case of time management, it is essential that the various elements of the job to be done are properly listed and arranged in order of their importance and priority. It is also important to estimate the amount of time that each element might need to be completed. You would also need to eliminate unnecessary wastage of time.
Handling Emails At Work
If most of your work involves emails, you must be aware that unnecessary emails keep cropping up and if you start attending to all of them, your time management plans will burst at their seams. Moreover, your mailbox will get crammed with these superfluous mails and you will find it difficult to keep track of the essential ones that concern your contracts, customer accounts and other important issues. It has, therefore, essential that you should not divulge your email details to irrelevant agencies that ask for such information. If you do need to deal with any such agency, you should have a different email account for this purpose so that your work email account is kept solely for official work. Moreover, database accounts should be kept up-to-date and old files should be maintained elsewhere. When your email accounts have only relevant files pertaining to your business, you will find that there will be less wastage of time leading to better time management.
Maintaining Notes
An essential element of time management is to develop the habit of taking notes and maintaining the same for future use. When you take notes at every step, whether in the planning stage or when you are attending a meeting or when you are simply pondering over the events of the day, you are building up essential tips and databases for planning your next line of action. This is a great way of saving time and utilizing every moment towards gainful work.
Time management is not only about keeping yourself busy in your work but also about finding time for relaxation with your family.
Useful Time Management Strategies
Oct 4, 2007 Time Management
In your busy everyday schedule of work, you must have felt the need for adopting better time management strategies whenever you were not able to accomplish all that you wanted to do due to lack of time. The time management strategies that are listed below will enable you to organize yourself better so that your output is comprehensive and fruitful. Given below are a few important strategies that will enable you to manage your time more effectively.
Plan Your Activities
The first step towards any successful venture or even an ordinary day, is to make a proper plan at the outset. This is true for every sphere of life, be it a picnic or a mission in space. Nothing can succeed without proper planning. Time management also requires a strategy whereby you can make a plan that includes making a list of the various jobs that need to be done and to prioritize them according to their importance. You should also make sure that you have allocated enough time for relaxation and for spending with your family.
Break Your Jobs Into Smaller Elements
An effective time management strategy necessitates breaking up your tasks into smaller steps so that you can manage them more easily and complete the steps on time. You will also feel more confident that you are well on your way to completing a successful day. When you are doing an important task, you should not get distracted by attending to telephone calls or emails unless you are anticipating some important messages. You can set apart a specific time for making telephone calls or attending to emails, if you feel that it is essential to do so. Unimportant communication should be tackled after you have achieved your immediate targets.
Determine When You Can Work With The Greatest Thrust
You should schedule the most important or difficult tasks according to the time when your mind is completely fresh. Your energy will be at its maximum level at such times and you will be able to tackle complex situations effectively and with ease. Moreover, an important time management strategy would be to use your downtime for the simple tasks.
Training Schedules
In order to achieve success in business, you need an efficient and dedicated team that will work in close cooperation with you as per your plans and directives. You can take advantage of training organizations and outsource this work of training your team to them. An important strategy of time management is to find a competent training organization and utilize your time to tackle other important issues.
Time management is of utmost importance in every aspect of life. “Time is money” is an oft-quoted saying which is very true, and using the above strategies will make you adept in time management.
Activity Management Is Another Name For Time Management
Sep 2, 2007 Organization, Prosperity, Time Management
It is a misnomer to believe that it is possible to do time management. Time is finite and available in equal measure to everyone in this world. Still, with the same amount of time at our disposal, someone becomes Bill Gates and another person rots away in penury. Whereas it is true that there are many other factors and resources that result in such diverse outcomes, the main aspect to be considered is that one person dared to think differently and maneuvered his activities in the limited available time and another person could not adjust his activities fruitfully.
Time Management Is Activity Management
The limited amount of time in a day cannot be managed differently by different people. It is only the amount and types of activities that you do, which will make the difference to the outcome. The management of your activities is more important. So, how do we manage our activities?
Planning
The core of any successful activity is the initial planning of the same without which you are bound to stray in wilderness. Without planning, you will just be flipping from one activity to another without accomplishing any tangible results. Planning of activities in relation to time management is very important. The first step in planning your activities for a day is to set a particular goal or various goals for the day. Unless you are clear in your mind as to what you wish to achieve, you will never get there and your activities will be haphazard without any preconceived direction. This will obviously lead to regrets at a later stage when you will feel that you should have conducted yourself in a different way but by that time, the damage would already have been done. It has, therefore, essential to decide what you want to achieve and in how much time.
Listing Of Various Activity Stages And Prioritizing Them
Once you have defined your goals, the next step is to list the various activity stages that will lead you towards the fulfillment of these goals. Having done that, you should go through the steps once again and put them in proper sequence in order of the priorities. You would also need to estimate the time that each step might take so that you can get a realistic view of the probability of achieving your goals.
Saying No To Interruptions
It is very important to visualize the possible interruptions that you might face while performing the various activities as per your plan. You need to be fully prepared to deal with such hindrances and to be able to tactfully avoid interruptions such as unnecessary telephone calls or unwanted visitors.
Put Your Plan In Black And White
Documenting your plan and keeping it in front of you will be very helpful as you can avoid missing out any essential activity or for gauging the progress of your work in relation to the overall target.
If you can master the art of activity management, you will find that effective time management will follow automatically.
Time Management – Saving time by working hard
Jul 15, 2007 Organization, Prosperity, Time Management
Time is the most precious thing that we have. In a typical hourly job the more we work the more money we earn. But the more we work the less we have time. For me it is the time that is important. But guess what the reason that you are your own boss and you are a professional is that you have time. So take that time and use it wisely.
In setting up your blog you are going to do some work for a little while and then get paid. How you get paid will be shown through later blogs. But for today I want to talk about how you can do work now, and get paid later.
When you do work for yourself you make more money. That is the type of business you are in. Now by using the Internet you can do work once and make money over and over again. Here is how it works:
People surf the Internet at all times, morning, afternoon, night, it does not matter, you can’t possibly be doing work all that time, and I hope that you don’t want to. So by writing a good quality tip, some good quality information, or a great marketing piece that will get people to want to search you out and use your services you are essentially making money for doing work once. You only have to write the article once, and it makes money for you for months.
Why months? If you are marketing yourself right, you are continually growing your business. Through growing your business you are getting more and more clients, and more and more word of mouth spread advertising. As you reach more and more people, and more and more people talk about you they will be coming to your blog. Your blog will be always stored with WordPress, and if they like what you have to say, they will be reading your back dated blog. Your work that you did a long time ago will pay off forever, as long as you have new clients, and people coming to your site.
