Tuesday 30 June 2009

Ultimate Knowledge Management (KM) Resources List

I spent over a year heading up a Knowledge Management department and in that time built up a list of some of the best KM resources on the web, which over the past few years I've referenced and shared with people numerous times at work.

This article groups the links into the following topic categories:
  • Knowledge Management Overviews
  • General KM sites and articles
  • KM Quick Wins
  • KM Business Cases
  • Knowledge Audits
  • KM Strategy
  • Creating a Knowledge Sharing Culture
  • Operational and Continuously Improving KM
  • KM Books Lists
  • KM Books
  • KM White Papers and Research
  • KM training courses and certifications


Knowledge Management Overviews

Most of the following are PDF files that provide an excellent overview of KM approaches and techniques. Most of them provide useful diagrams and commentary around these techniques too.

General KM sites and articles

A few general KM sites and articles, including lists of tools and overview articles. David Gurteen's website provides a range of resources and is regularly updated with news on his travels. His monthly email newsletter often contains some interesting articles and links.

KM Quick Wins

Articles and essays on "guerrilla" KM tactics, driving quick wins with low funds or as a way to generate early support for a KM programme.

KM Business Cases

Various articles on KM benefits and building KM business cases.


Knowledge Audits

Approaches and structures for identifying existing knowledge assets and assessing the "maturity" of an organisation's KM capabilities.


KM Strategy

Different KM strategy types and how to develop KM strategies.

Developing a Knowledge Sharing Culture

Often the trickiest part of any knowledge management initiative, the culture of an organisation is critical to knowledge sharing.

Operational and Continuously Improving KM

Running KM processes operationally is very different to the up-front transformational effort required to put in place the foundations for KM. A lot of this is covered in some of the above overview articles, and the following cover some specific topics in this space.

KM Books Lists


KM Books

Some of the absolute classics (the Amazon reviews speak for themselves):

KM White Papers and Research

A few more academic papers and articles:

KM training courses and certifications

There are various KM training courses and certifications out there. Here are a few of the most well known ones:




Sunday 28 June 2009

The Importance Of Integrity

Honesty and integrity are very important to me and the way I live my life. These basic principles have also often contributed to many of my successes, as by helping people and taking action in a way that is consistently positive and honest, people will often help you back.

There are a set of old blog posts in The Retrospector that focus particularly on integrity, which cover some great points:
Sometimes acting with integrity can be uncomfortable as it means openly facing your own failures, but by doing this in a positive way and working towards solutions, it does become increasingly easy to do and you will reap the rewards over time.

The issue of building trust through consistently acting based on a set of positive values is a strong theme in the book "The Trusted Advisor" (recommended in a previous post of mine), which goes into much more detail around a structured approach around this.


More Personal Development Categories

In my post about developing balanced personal and career goals I listed a number of personal development categories from various sources: http://business-life-success.blogspot.com/2009/06/balanced-personal-and-career-goals.html

Over at http://www.inpowr.com/community/, they use the below list to categorise the different personal development community groups:
  • My body
    • Self-image
    • Relaxation
    • Nutrition
    • Sexuality
    • Energy
    • Appearance
  • My environment
    • Living
    • Transportation
    • Material
    • Neighbourhood
    • Workplace
    • Nature
  • My mind
    • Reasoning
    • Self-esteem
    • Perseverance
    • Culture
    • Security
    • Ambition
  • My spirit
    • Beliefs
    • Creativity
    • Peace
    • Reflection
    • Mood
    • Meaning
  • My relationships
    • Friendship
    • Love
    • Family
    • Recognition
    • Affirmation
    • Communication
  • My accomplishments
    • Finances
    • Altruism
    • Occupation
    • Leisure
    • Achievements
    • Planning
My view is that it is possible to over-do this kind of categorisation as it's just a tool to ensure we have coverage when setting goals, but it is useful to look at various different categorisation taxonomies and to choose the selection that works best for us.

Affiliate Marketing Awesomness

Despite my slight skepticism about affiliate marketing, it's impossible to argue with the logic that it could *potentially* be a great way to make low-maintenance, "automatic" income, if you get it right.

The fact that you don't need to incur any costs around payment mechanisms, fulfilment etc and just basically need to drive qualified traffic to the relevant sites that converts into purchases, means that *in theory* it's a great way to make money. It could also absolutely fit the profile of the "muse"-type product that Tim Ferris recommends in his book, the Four-Day Work Week (although he isn't actually specifically talking about affiliate marketing in this book).

Of course, the reality is that it actually takes a lot of time and isn't as easy as it sounds, plus there are loads of affiliate schemes that are downright rubbish and to be avoided. However, the potential is there and I just stumbled across the following on slideshare that I found to be a reallygood overview affiliate marketing, why it's good and some pragmatic advice on making it work: http://www.slideshare.net/affsum/affiliate-marketing-2009-what-really-works-now-presentation

While I'm at it, the following includes a few good points too:http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingcolumnistkimtgordon/article49608.html

How To Find Your Niche Market

Finding a niche market that is large enough to be profitable, but is specialist enough that it is not saturated with too many competitors, is often a critical success factor for a business.

This post covers a few areas to steer clear of, some tips on identifying your existing niche, and how to find a new niche to break into.

If you are starting from scratch it is often a good idea to directly target a specific subset of a market (a niche), and if you decide to enter a wider market, in order to compete you will need something that will differentiate you from the competition (and this differentiation effectively creates your niche).


Niches to steer clear of

Put simply, any niche that is too small or where the population of the niche has little or no money, is one to steer clear of.

The following are some broad demographic groups that are generally not worth going for. There are always exceptions to the rule, but it's generally easier to just avoid:
  1. The unemployed, homeless and/or bankrupt. There's just simply no money in this niche.
  2. Children. Again, children generally do not have any money - so if this niche is chosen it either needs to be aimed at (a) getting the children to get their parents to buy things for them or (b) aimed at the parents themselves, not the children.
  3. Students. Unless you're selling essentials, this market generally does not have any money either. There are more exceptions in this case than others, as there are some things students will spend money on, and targeting them via universities can be effective, but it is generally not as lucrative a market as most. As with children, it can be worth targeting parents.
It's also possible to put people trying to save money in this list, although money-saving schemes can actually be very profitable.


Finding your niche

We all have a niche of our own and every time we buy a product or service, whoever we buy it from is quite likely to be targeting the niche that we belong to within their market. As a result, a great starting point when looking for new business opportunities is to look at the niche market(s) we are already part of.

To work out your own niche, ask yourself some simple questions:
  1. What do you want / desire? (There will be others out there who want the same things)
  2. What are your constraints / what is holding you back? (Helps if the marketing messages empathise with these things, and breaking through them could also be a selling point)
  3. What are your interests / hobbies? (If you're interested in something then others will be, and (a) will be easier to empathise with them Asand (b) you already have knowledge to build on)
  4. What are your skills? (At work or at home, your existing skills and knowledge may help finding a product to sell or could lead to specific services you could sell)

Finding another niche

So, answering these questions will help identify your niche, but what if it's not quite what you are looking for and you want to break into a new area? Maybe there's just not enough money in the areas you've identified?

In that case you need to find a different niche to target. Whatever you choose, remember that you will need to be able to learn enough about it to enter it effectively, so it needs to be an area that interests you.

To find a new niche, a good starting point is to think about what people spend money on, for example:
  • Hobbies and sports: sports, movies, games, music, art, electronics, equipment...
  • Money: money-making programmes, getting better paid jobs, investment, budgeting and money management...
  • Health and beauty: fashion, cosmetics, dieting, weight loss & gain, body building, vitamins, healthy living...
  • Love and sex: finding a partner, dating, relationships, flowers, chocolates, jewelery, greetings cards, gifts...
  • Children, pets and family: toys, presents, gardening and diy tools...

Also think about current concerns and market trends. What are people's hopes and fears? What can you do to help with them? Is there something already out there that you can provide your own unique spin on?

Remember that a niche is a subset of another wider market, so if there is a particular area you are already interested in there will almost always be demand for some new product or service, or a more targeted version of an existing one, for a smaller part of the overall market.

Have you found your niche?


Quantity Over Quality Will Lead To Success

Here are five reasons why:
  1. The more you do of something, the better you will get at it;
  2. The more you do in a shorter timeframe, the more mistakes you will make, and the more you will learn (not just about that task, but in general: sometimes the lessons you learn can be surprising and the only way you will experience them is through taking action);
  3. The shorter the timeframe, the smaller the impact of mistakes;
  4. The faster you get things out of the door, the sooner you will receive feedback on how you can make it better and the more time you will have to build those changes in;
  5. The sooner you have something tangible, the easier it is to understand, to communicate what you are trying to achieve and to realise the benefits of the work. This principle is echoed in various agile development methodologies.
Being a perfectionist is useful up to a point, but if you keep holding things off until they are "perfect", there is a risk that you will never finish - and it's better to get something out there in a "nearly good enough" state than to never finish at all.

It's not all black-and-white thought: quality is still important, and whatever you do, it is important to strive for the highest quality possible, but not at the expense of getting things done.

For example, a lot has been written on the power of the pareto principle, or 80/20 "rule" (Tim Ferris is one advocate, for example) - and it is true that setting a timeframe to do something in, and just making sure you get as much done within that timeframe as possible, but not doing any more, is one great way to drive productivity and the time contraint can actually sometimes increase the quality of the outcome because the urgency can drive increased levels of creativity.

Project Managers will be very familiar with the good-fast-cheap triangle, and regularly need to make decisions about whether to spend more time on something to increase quality, especially when there's an impending deadline. It's a balance we all need to strike in everything we do.

This post is an example: I actually currenly have 12 work-in-progress articles, ranging from headline ideas and structures to drafts that I'm not quite happy with - but I'm also keen to ensure I keep publishing content on a regular basis, partly to keep the activity going on the site, partly to give myself a feeling of progress and achievement, partly to keep in the flow and learn through action. It may not be the most polished of articles, but I hope you find it useful and it's an example of how I am working to practice what I preach.

So the key message is: get started now! The sooner you get going, the more you can do, the better you will get, and the further you will go...

Wednesday 24 June 2009

How to Fit Blogging Around Your Day Job

This could actually apply to any "thing" you want to do, for example a hobby (blogging is just one example).

If you're like me, you work long and hard during the week and finding time for anything else that you want to do (never mind writing articles in a blog), can be a real challenge.

However, finding time to do things is, in principle, very easy. The challenge is just taking that step and doing what you know you need to do. It's all about your own personal priorities and the level of commitment and action you are willing to make and take.

So, how do you fit blogging (or whatever you want to do) around your day job?...


1. Don't!

This is the easy way out: just quit.

It's a surefire way to no longer have to worry about how you fit it around your day job.

But is it really what you want to do? If not, then taking this easy way out is not the way to go. If you want to do something enough, you will find a way of doing it.

So, option 2 is...


2. Don't!

Only do it at weekends and during holidays!

Ok, so this is kind of fitting it round your day job - but by this I mean don't worry about it during the week: work your hours, do your thing at work, then use your spare time to do the things you want to do (like writing your posts).

Still not happy?

Ok, in that case...


3. Don't!

Fit your job around blogging (or whatever), not the other way round!

This is a mindset change. It means that you've decided that whatever it is that you want to do (your hobby/blogging/social activity etc) is important enough to make sure it happens.

This means you need to do it regardless of work. You can make this happen: it's just a case of priorities.

If you ever say "but I've got to stay late to get this done..." - actually, you don't. There will be consequences of not getting it done, yes, but it's still your choice. In most cases, it will not be the end of the world. Also, once you start making time for your activity, and people start recognising that you do this, it becomes less and less of an issue. People accept it, life goes on and you get to do the thing you want to do.

Still not good enough? Time for extreme measures...

4. Don't

Quit your job!

Ok, this is the least likely option unless you can make money out of whatever it is you're doing, but remember that it is always an option. You are in control and it's just your own risk aversion that's stopping you take that step. Who knows, making that jump could lead to some new and unexpected opportunities that are more than worth your while. The question is, how much do you want it?


5. Try but fail

Finally, this is the most common one that people fall into and should be avoided above and beyond all of the above. It is a failure because it is the one option where we did not make the choice. It is the scenario where we have convinced ourselves we want to do something but have not taken sufficient action to make it happen.

You need to commit to make a difference. A decision needs to be made, a choice of direction.

Is there something you want to do that you've been putting off? Do you really want to do it? Take that first step today!


Monday 22 June 2009

My Blogging Integrity Promise

I am currently experimenting with bit of affiliate marketing using products on ClickBank and Amazon and some future posts will be based on my experiences with this.

However, I want to make it very clear that everything I do in this space will be completely separate from this blog.

I promise that I will only recommend books, products and other materials that I genuinely have used and think are worth highlighting as being of a high quality worth purchasing (or borrowing, or going on, or whatever).

I've seen a few blogs and sites recently that are clearly just cynical attempts to make money. This blog is not one of those, and if I try any of those techniques I will do it completely separately and only write about it on this blog to provide an objective opinion about how it went.

Why AdSense Sucks and Why I Use It Anyway

Why AdSense sucks:
  1. Pushing people away: Every time someone clicks on an Ad, it's taking them away from the site - so some could argue that it's kind of encouraging people to leave, which is not what I want...
  2. Loss of control: Whilst the Ads should be targeted based on the content in the site, I don't have any actual control over them so they will always be advertising things I don't actually endorse;
  3. Selling out: They take up space on the site and could be seen as "selling out" by users, suggesting my blog is more about making money than delivering high quality content, and detracting from the site's integrity;
  4. Tricking users for financial gain: Some users who are not web-savvy may be "tricked" into clicking on links, thinking that they are endorsed by me when they're not - which could create a bad impression.

Why I Use It Anyway:
  1. Quality Content: If the blog is good enough, people will come back. If the site doesn't have good content on it, people will leave and not come back anyway;
  2. Tailored Content: If the articles are well written and clearly targeted, the Ads should be targeted too; and if they're not, people are not forced to click on them anyway...
  3. Proof is in the pudding: It will be clear that I have not sold out by the quality of content published. If there are Ads and rubbish content, it's a fair point and people won't come back anyway;
  4. People are not stupid: First, most web users are bright enough to know a Google Ad when they see one, and second, I would never try to integrate Google Ads to make them look like part of the site to "trick" people: this is unethical;
  5. It's common: Many sites have AdSense installed now - even some large corporate sites - so it's become a familiar sight and is not off-putting for most people due to that level of familiarity;
  6. Ads can help people: In some cases, the Ads may actually highlight sites that people are interested in and actually help people get to some content or find some product they were either looking for or didn't realise they needed;
  7. It doesn't cost users anything: it doesn't actually cost the user anything. If it did I definitely wouldn't put them up there.
Finally, let's be honest, if people do click on them and I make a small amount of money, that's great. If they don't it's not the end of the world. My focus has got to remain on writing posts that I think people will find useful and interesting - and a few small Google Ads should not make any difference to that.

Unique Blogging: 5 Top Ways To Add A Personal Touch To All Of Your Blog Posts

It's actually easier than you think to ensure that your articles are unique and personal.

This post covers five key points to consider when trying to craft unique, personalised blog posts:
  1. How everything you write is already unique and personal as long as you don't copy it!
  2. Using commentary to easily create unique, interesting and valuable articles
  3. Writing a post based on other people's ideas - how to do it and why it's research, not plagiarism (as long as you reference the sources where possible)
  4. When you realise someone else has already written something on a subject that you thought was a new idea you'd come up with
  5. Injecting a bit of personality through idiosyncrasies and personal funny-isms

1. Everything you write is unique... as long as you don't copy it!

If you're interested about writing about something but you think it has already had a lot written about it, don't worry, just do it!

As long as you don't just copy content from other sources, whatever you write will be different - you won't be able to help it, the way you structure it and your writing style will provide a subtly different spin.

That slightly different spin will be enough to make it worth doing for someone: the great thing about publishing to the world is that someone out there will prefer your writing style to someone else's.

Also, remember that every post you write is good practice for you too, in terms of your own writing technique and in terms of getting things out there: sometimes it's important to write about something that's on your mind so you can get it off your mind and you don't need to revisit it. Likewise, it can sometimes act as a great starting point to re-visit and refine in future posts.


2. Using commentary

Stuck for ideas?

Commentary is a great and very easy way to create new and unique content without needing to come up with the ground-breaking ideas yourself.

Simply find someone else's article that you find interesting, and write about that. Reference back to specific parts of the article by inserting quotations and writing about your thoughts on those things.

This way, you take the interesting ideas of the original article and add to it with your own valuable insights and opinions (note: make sure you always reference the original source so people can see the full article in context).

The great thing about writing commentary is that you create your own personal brand by sharing your own unique views on things, which some people will agree with and others will disagree with - making for interesting discussions. It's also good to show that you are promoting other people's work - that you're working for the good of others and your blog isn't just a cynical way to make money.


3. Writing a post based on other people's ideas

Similar to commentary but a step further in terms of creating your own content, if you find a topic other people have written about that you find interesting, you can create your own posts based on their ideas.

This is not plagiarism or copying as long as you put a bit of work into it and create something a bit different. The two different kinds of "different" are (1) creating a totally different view on the same subject and (2) consolidating a number of people's views on the same area and presenting it back as something another coherent article where all of those points are covered in one place.

Again, I recommend referencing back to other people's work if you have consciously used it - both because it's their original work so they deserve the credit and because it helps people get a different perspective on what you're written.

An approach that I have used that works for this is:
(1) Find the topic of interest
(2) Do some research - find a minimum of 5-10 good articles on the same topic
(3) Brainstorm and map out the common, consistent themes and views e.g. using a mind map
(4) Structure the article - headings based on key themes, arguments (for and against) etc
(5) Write the various drafts etc leading up to the final article

Part 3 (brainstorming) is usually the part where you will come up with your unique spin on the subject or reach a decision on your own opinion on whether you agree or disagree with certain arguments etc. Part 4 is where you build those views into the story you will put across in your work.


4. What to do when you realise a unique idea of yours isn't unique after all

First, something you need to realise is that nearly everything you come up with, someone else has probably at least thought of and probably even written about by now.

Second, the way advances in knowledge occur is through building on lessons learned and developing our thoughts from those that came before. In some ways, very little is truly new, whilst at the same time everything is subtly different from whatever came before.

So, when you come up with a completely ground-shakingly new idea, then find out someone else has already come up with it, do not be disheartened.

The fact that you came up with it without finding out that someone else came up with it means it's still your idea too. It also means you probably have a new or different spin on it that someone else doesn't. It also means it's possible that if you continue thinking along those lines you will come up with another great idea before someone else, so don't stop thinking that way!

The most important thing is that you still do something about it, even though you've found out someone else has already come up with the idea. Read points 2 and 3 above and take action!


5. Injecting a bit of personality

This final point is just a general one on writing style. Different people have their own ways of writing and there is a lot out there about how to write - but my personal preference is to try to write conversationally, without agonising too much about writing technique.

Sprinkle your articles with idiosyncrasies and personal funny-isms: whilst you need to avoid it becoming annoying to the reader, it's all about establishing your own personal style.


...a final note...

The final thing is to ensure you write things that you would want to read. If you would find them interesting and read them, chances are someone else would too. If you're happy with your work, you're half way there.

Sunday 21 June 2009

The Missing Message In the 4-Hour Work Week

The book that inspired me to actually get up and start this blog was "The 4-Hour Work Week", which has some great ideas about how to get priorities straight, how to create a "muse" to generate a semi-passive income etc.

However, I've just noticed a very important area that has been missed in the book.

As I've been playing around with some of the ideas in my spare time, I've found myself experiencing a strange internal conflict that I'd never experienced up until now.

I'm in a great, very challenging, very rewarding job; I recently got married to my fiance who I have been good friends with for 12 years and are happy starting our life together; and I have loads of great friends who I was very happy to see attend the wedding - so why the conflict?

Then it suddenly hit me today.

One of the core messages of the 4-Hour Work Week is about minimising the time spent on your business through automation and through minimising the interactions you need to have with customers and the people you outsource your work to.


The Missing Message

The key missing message is: relationships are still the single most important thing in our lives.

This does not contradict anything in the book, and in the later chapters Timothy Ferris does allude to having fun with friends etc, but I strongly believe that our relationships are the most important thing in our lives and the message needs to be remembered.

Surround yourself with lots of happy, successful people and you will be happy and successful.

In a product-based, automated business, yes you can reduce the level of human interaction required - but in the rest of your life, including in the blogosphere, at work (if you have a job that is not automated) etc - relationships are key. In fact, service-based businesses are built on them.

I still think the book is great, but when I re-read it I will definitely be keeping this in mind, and I walk forward from today with a renewed interest in my relationships. Make sure there is a social element to your goals too!

_______________________________

For loads of great personal development and self-help books for business and personal success, check out one of these tailored book stores:

6 Steps That All Personal Development Approaches Cover

All personal development books, courses, programmes and other media, consist of the same basic steps.

Generally speaking, some are stronger in some areas than others, and some have more emphasis and detail on some areas than others, but they all follow the same fundamental steps.

This is my first attempt to summarise the key steps. If there are any I've missed please let me know by adding a comment!
  1. Work out where you are
  2. Work out where you want to be
  3. Work out how you're going to get there
  4. Change your mindset
  5. Take a lot of action and keep re-aligning your actions with where you want to get to
  6. Persevere, repeat steps 1-5 as many times as it takes
For each of these steps there are a wide variety of techniques and tools that can be employed, and there are even books on each individual one of them. Below I've included a very brief summary of what each one involves. I would recommend reading more specific material (including some of the posts and books recommended on this blog) or details on each.


1. Work out where you are

This is the "self-assessment" or "life temperature-check" that is vital an absolutely vital step towards the self-awareness necessary to decide what action to take first.

You need to be completely open and honest with yourself so that you can start make informed decisions based on an understanding of the gaps in your life.

I wrote a bit about some frameworks you can use for this here: http://business-life-success.blogspot.com/2009/06/balanced-personal-and-career-goals.html


2. Work out where you want to be

This is all about setting goals. Without an idea of where you're going, it's not possible to:
  • Ensure any actions you take are in the right direction
  • Know whether you are making good progress towards your goals or not
  • Know when you've got to where you want to get to


3. Work out how you're going to get there

There are a couple of parts to this.

One is to take the pie-in-the-sky, green-field, ultimate wishes that provide you with a trajectory and map out those milestones to getting there, with a timescale.

The other is the set of closer actions you need to take, aligned to those longer-term ones, that help you see where you're aiming and give you a starting point that you know will eventually lead to your ultimate aims.

In my experience, making lots of little short-term plans that are easy to achieve and actually doing them is the most effective way to push things forwards. Making lots of long term plans but doing nothing gets you nowhere. Moreover, the more action you take the better and more realistic your plans get, the more you accelerate and quicker you get to where you want to go.


4. Change your mindset

There are books after books on this subject. From positive affirmations, to hypnotism, to general life-rule-type recommendations, this is all about breaking out of your limiting beliefs and realising that anythings is possible.

All of this is great, motivating stuff, but is often the kind of material that leads to a lot of big dreams and no action.

Trust me - taking action is the best way to change your mindset, because the minute you actually see changes in your life you will start to believe without needing to read some book to tell you how to change your beliefs...


5. Take a lot of action and keep re-aligning your actions with where you want to get to

This is easily the most important step. Taking action is the thing that changes everything.

Taking action will also completely change your view on your goals and your feeling about what is possible.

My recommendation would be to keep your overall goals in mind but keep a focus on those short-term goals: keep re-writing them and doing them. The more you achieve, the more you will try to do, the more realistic your longer-term goals will feel and the bigger your aspirations will become.


6. Persevere, repeat steps 1-5 as many times as it takes

The final point is to repeat, repeat, repeat.

Perseverance is really important - the more you do something, the better you will get at it, the more you will believe it, the further you will be able to go.

We are all human beings and all get knocked back by things at times, but keep it up and you will succeed: our success will never be based on how well we do in good times, but how well we respond to challenges and overcome obsticals to succeed during harder times.

How to Persevere with No Traffic!

So, you've started a new blog. You've got some great ideas and you've posted a couple of articles on them...

...but no-one's reading your masterpieces!

You've followed the advice from every traffic-building site out there and submitted your links to every directory you can find...

...but there still isn't anyone reading your genius creations!

The problem?

Content. Plain and simple.


Why you need lots of great content

Just think about the blogs you've read in the past. Which ones do you go back to, time and time again? Which ones keep cropping up in searches and which ones did you just glance through, never to return?

Put simply, you need great content, preferably the kind of content you might go back and re-read for reference or general inspiration, and enough content to keep people interested with a range of points.

The alternative to having lots of content is the promise of content to come - which requires regular updates - but again, the updates need to be good quality for people to want to come back and read them.


What to do if you don't have enough content

I wrote the following article about how much content you need to start generating any real kind of traffic: http://business-life-success.blogspot.com/2009/06/reaching-content-critical-mass-when-to.html, and it's clear that for a while when you first start out, you simply will not have enough content. There's no escaping it, and the only way to get enough content is to get writing!

A few people visited this blog recently and it's a great feeling - but I know that I need to write a lot more before people are going to have any real reason to visit - or more importantly keep coming back - and I know it's important to persevere and keep writing - despite the strange feeling that at the moment I'm writing things and there's no-one there to read it!

So, how to get over that sinking feeling that you're hammering away at something that isn't going anywhere?

The key thing here is: SET A TARGET.

My target is to reach 50 good-sized posts (not including the brief ones where I've posted recommended links I've found). This number is based on the rule-of-thumb figures I mentioned in my previous post.

I have signed up to various blog catalogues etc, but by setting myself this (admittedly quite high) target, I will not be disheartened if I don't get much traffic before then - moreover I'm not going to put any major effort in getting any serious traffic until I hit that target, so if people come and see my site before then it's all a bonus.

By using a target in this way, you can change your mindset about your blog and focus on what is important - the content - so that when you do start promoting your site, there is lots of good stuff up there for people to read and you're not just shouting about a virtually empty site.

If you're struggling to motivate yourself to write or have a similar challenge, set your own target today to change your attitude towards it and get motivated!

Why to Avoid Accepting Friends and Reciprocal Links on Subjects That Are Not Relevant

This may seem like an obvious one, but when first starting out it is a strong temptation.

If you're writing a blog, I would guess that you're doing it because either (1) you have things you want to share with others and/or (2) you want to make money through blogging.

Either way, you need traffic on your blog to make it worthwhile.

One of the most effective ways to drive traffic and increase your site's rankings in the search engines is by getting lots of other sites to link to yours.

The trouble is, people often take a scatter-gun approach and try to get links from loads of other sites even if they're not relevant.

Whilst this will increase the chances of people going onto your site, it will dilute the overall quality of these links because they are generally irrelevant.
  • From a search engine perspective, this is decreases the ranking of specific relevant keywords in relation to other less relevant ones;
  • It also means you will build an inaccurate idea of traffic, as it will increase the number of people getting onto your site who aren't actually interested (and if you're looking for AdSense clicks this decreases the likelihood of any of those too);
  • It also impacts your credibility because it's clear you're just fishing for traffic instead of building an audience based on their interest in what you are writing about
...so, my advice would be:
  • If you want traffic, don't just ask loads of randoms to link to you if it's not relevant;
  • If someone with a site that has nothing to do with yours asks you to link to them in return for a link, don't accept: why would anyone visiting their site what to read yours, and vice-versa?
There's nothing wrong with trying to drive traffic to your site, but make sure you're focusing on the right audience, to get the right people who will actually get some value from your writing to look at your work.


The Danger and Causes of Not Taking Action

Not taking action is the #1 barrier to success, the #1 reason why people fail in their attempts to change their lives through personal development, and #1 reason why people often start things up but don't finish them off.

The irony is that nearly all of the self-help and personal development books, cd's, courses and programmes I have ever come across place their emphasis on taking action NOW.

So what is it that causes us to falter?

Spending more time reading than doing

I know I've been guilty of this one in the past.

There are a number of reasons for falling into this trap, but the key ones are:
  • it's actually more fun to read up on great ways to achieve your goals than to actually do it;
  • it's safer to read than to have a go at something and risk failing;
  • taking action can be hard - it often involves a lot of time and effort and stepping outside of our comfort zone.

I need to understand the context before I do anything...

Have you run into this one before?

For example, you reach the end of a chapter and it has a set of exercises - but you think to yourself, that's great, some stuff to do, but let's read the next chapter to make sure I understand it in context before doing it - I want to know how it fits into the bigger picture first...

Big mistake. How often have you done this and not actually managed to go back and do the exercise?

Ok, so it is good to re-read these books and do the exercises as you go along that way - but that is eating into the time you could have been spending actually making some changes in your life instead of just reading about how!


Focusing on the wrong things - take the right action now!

The final key one is about what kind of action you take.

The grand, life-changing things you can do are all very important and need to happen, but not at the expense of everything else in your life. Sometimes it is important to do the mundane, day-to-day stuff before you sit down and think about the bigger picture.

There's a lot out there about how focussing on strengths over weaknesses is important - but ensuring that you have the right focus in life is really very important too.

A focus on strengths is not the same as avoiding doing important things you don't want to do. Mundane examples include washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, doing that little bit extra work you know will make a massive difference but you just can't really be bothered...

You know deep down what you should be doing right now - so stop reading this post and do it!



...okay, so if you're currently in a position where you can't do that thing you have been meaning to do but haven't got round to, make sure you do so as soon as you can. In the meantime, I found the following couple of posts when searching on this topic that are worth reading:


Sunday 14 June 2009

Top 50 personal development bloggers

I'm clearly in discovery mode at the moment - and found this great list of top personal development and self-help bloggers that I will be coming back to reference: http://www.healthmoneysuccess.com/802/top-50-personal-development-bloggers/

It includes a brief description to each of them so you can read the summary before exploring their articles.

The following article is also useful in listing good sources of information online: http://generallythinking.com/blog/?p=623.

Saturday 13 June 2009

50 of the best personal development blogs

Just found the following article and had to share it: http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/2007/01/07/50-of-the-best-personal-development-blogs/.

Enjoy!

Reaching content critical mass: when to start pushing for traffic on your blog

Everyone knows that when you first launch your site or blog, you will not have any traffic. No-one knows you're there, no-one links to you and it's difficult to find you.

We also know that content is king, both in terms of attracting people (and attracting repeat visitors), and for the search engines, which base relevance on content among other things. The big question is, how much content do you need to "launch"?

I stumbled over the following article, which provides some useful rules of thumb, both to help provide some milestones to work towards and to set expectations to avoid disappointment when the hits don't start rolling in when you only have one article: http://blog4smallbusiness.com/2009/01/19/seo-for-blogs-content-is-king/.

I recommend reading the full article for various blog SEO tips (search engine optimisation), but here are the very high level key milestones for reference:
  • 10 pages - enough to launch the site but don't expect any traffic
  • 50 pages - search engines might start to take a bit of notice if you're lucky - good case scenario generates 300+ visitors per day
  • 150 pages - critical mass - if you've done all the right things in terms of writing lots of relevant content of a similar theme and doing all the SEO stuff, this article reckons you could move up to 3000 unique visitors per day (sounds high to me, but I will let you know when I get to that many pages)
  • 3000 pages - expect lots of traffic, especially if you're well optimised, articles are all thematically consistent and you've been doing the SEO stuff like getting links from other blogs etc.
I found this very interesting and useful stuff - hope you do too...

Guaranteed success without lots of hard work

Ok, so one way to success is through lots of hard work. It takes a lot of time and energy and is not always fun.

Some argue that it's the only way and I do agree that action is required, but not necessarily hard work. Allow me to explain...


Definitions

For this article I am going to break the sentence down into two bits:
  • Hard work
  • Lots of it (implying lots of time and quantity of hard work)
There are two main points to this article, the first of which is a mindset change that some people would suggest changes very little (and I would argue changes everything), with the second being something that many would say is "easier said than done" - but I can assure you that making steps towards it will in itself help.


Replacing work with action

The first point is a mindset change.

Success does require action, but it doesn't necessarily need to be seen as "work". The word "work" implies something you need to do but don't want to do, something involving stress.

Whatever you are trying to achieve, in order to be successful, the very best way to approach it is to start by thinking about how you can achieve it in an exciting and enjoyable way. Plan out a personal journey to the successful end game you have in mind, and take action towards it.

If the action required to get there isn't "work", then you're more likely to do it too, because it's actually something you'll be motivated to do!


Working smarter, not harder

This is the "easier said than done" bit: instead of just doing something the way you've always done it, or seen others do it, take the time to step back and think about whether there's a better way...

Whether you've managed to change your mindset from work to action or not, if you have a set of activities that you need to perform to succeed, making the conscious effort to consider alternative approaches will be time very well invested if you can get it done in half the time.

Things to think about are:
  • Do I really need to do this to be a success? (Can I just not do it? Often the negative impact of not doing something is a lot less than you think)
  • Is this something I can get someone else to do? (There are some people who enjoy doing things you don't like to do - and more to the point who are better at it - so this is often a great option to speed things up and reduce the time you need to commit to something)
  • Is it something I can automate? (Great for any repeatable tasks)
A good example of the automation point above is the contrast between service-based and product-based work. With service-based work, you are selling your time, so to be a success cannot be separated from the time you spend on work. In contrast, if you are a selling a product, it is possible to automate much of the sales and delivery lifecycle and minimise involvement in the process to maximise profit whilst minimising time spent.


Guaranteeing success without lots of hard work - wrapping it up

To summarise,
  1. Replace "work" for targeted, productive "action" by making it a personal, enjoyable exercise
  2. Question your approach and work smarter rather than harder to reduce the quantity of work and time needed to do it
As always, aside from specific success strategies around specific products and markets, success involves an investment, but it will not need lots of hard work if you approach it in the right way.

Some great blogging links

The following page has a load of great links to sites about building a successful blog, including a couple of paragraphs on what makes each one great: http://franklinbishop.net/blogs-bloggers-read/.

Recommended if you have an interest in blogging...

Friday 12 June 2009

An important lesson in how to start a blog post

I learned an important lesson today when looking through a few Blog catalogues.

It's a simple lesson to learn, and there are many wider points on writing blogs beyond this, but in short, you need to make sure that the very start of the blog article includes something to intrigue people and draw them in, or else they won't click through.

So how do you do that, exactly?

There are a number of ways, including the use of exciting blog headlines to draw people in (see http://franklinbishop.net/blog-headlines-that-kick-ass/), and there are various well known ways to structure a compelling blog post (e.g. http://franklinbishop.net/5-types-of-blog-posts-for-more-traffic/) - but the key thing is to make sure the first couple of paragraphs allude to the contents of the rest of the article in an interesting way, possibly listing the contents or summarising the key points you will reveal - but not giving anything too much away, so people feel the urge to click and read more.

This is clearly something people get better at the more they write, but the best way to improve more quickly is to read up on how other people do it and practice! I always do a quick search when I find a subject of interest or think of something I want to find more about, and blogging is one of those things where there is a vast community of people, all at different stages (including the same stage as me and you, at whatever stage we are at).

One site that had a few articles that were really useful on this subject is here: http://www.problogger.net/how-to-write-great-blog-content. If I find any other great ones I will post them.

Sunday 7 June 2009

Balanced Personal and Career Goals

A consistent theme across many personal development approaches is that true happiness lies in developing a balanced life, through goals that address not only work or financial gain, and not only specific relationships or charity, but a mix of these areas relevant to the individual.

Not everyone will place the same weight on any particular area, so a structure to help assign priorities and understand where we are against these priorities can be useful in making an informed decision on what action we take and to help build a feeling of success or impetus to change as we achieve or fall short of our own expectations of ourselves.

Even if we are actually already doing all the right things in line with our personal development goals, the act of making an informed decision about which area(s) hold the most importance can in itself make a big difference to people, as it can provide a real feeling of success and re-assurance.

Areas of development focus

Here are a few examples of improvement categories that can be found in personal development books and websites (referenced).


Awaken the Giant within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Life:
  • Physical
  • Mental
  • Emotional
  • Attractiveness
  • Relationships
  • Living Environment
  • Social
  • Spiritual
  • Career
  • Financial

How to be Brilliant: Change Your Ways in 90 Days!
  • Vision
  • Career
  • Personal Development
  • Health
  • Close Family
  • Money
  • Relationships
  • Contribution

  • Health
  • Wealth
  • Relationships
  • Career
  • Spirituality
  • Home and Lifestyle
  • Health
    • Mind
    • Body
    • Soul
  • Relationship
    • Partner
    • Family
    • Friends
  • Career
    • Individual
    • Team
    • Functional
  • Finance
    • Income
    • Budget
    • Investing
  • Giving
    • Individual
    • Family
    • Corporate

Using the development categories

The real value of these categories is in how we put them to use.

There are a number of ways to use a list of development topics like this: below is a simple approach you can follow (based on the instructions you will find in any of the resources above). The key thing is to ensure you select a balanced set of topics so that you cover more than just a single development need.

For each development category:
  1. Use a 1-10 score (subjective) to score yourself in terms of how "strong" you feel that you were in that area 5 years ago
  2. Write a short sentence explaining why you set that score
  3. Repeat points 1 and 2 for how you feel about each of the points now
  4. Repeat points 1 and 2 for how you would like to feel about each of the topics in 5 years from now
This will provide you with an insight into where you were, where you are now and where you would like to be, and the piorities you have against each.

You can use this structure to help choose improvement goals that move you towards your aspirational state and to ensure balance across areas (there are various good articles and books on objective setting, which will not be covered here e.g. search for SMART objectives as one widely used technique).


Focus on the short term for quicker results

However, to see even quicker results, it's usually more effective to set specific shorter-term actions based on these insights and track progress against them. e.g. make a list of actions and things to do over the next two weeks, and in two weeks time do the same exercise for the "now", and repeat every two weeks, tracking progress.

This will:
  1. Ensure focus is placed on smaller, achieveable things that you're more likely to actually do,
  2. Provide a feeling of success and progress as you actually do specific, tangible things towards your goals,
  3. By reviewing the categories regularly, keep your focus on the areas that matter to you and help you maintain the feeling of direction and progress.

Great personal development sites and articles

I've been doing some research to develop a tool for setting, managing and tracking progress against personal goals based on various techniques seen in personal development books and articles and in the process have been compiling a list of useful websites.

Below is a list of some of the more useful sites I've come across so far, with a focus on goal setting and objectives (in no particular order)...

http://www.goalsguy.com/Knowledge/index.html

http://www.constraintmanagement.co.uk/Personal_Focus.htm

http://www.completepersonaldevelopment.com

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/careeradvice/a/worklife.htm

http://www.maximumbalance.com/community/node/344