The Myth of the Personal Brand – By all appearances, the discussion of personal branding – and the hoards of people who claim to help us do it – is fueled by the social web. Before everyone had a voice, branding was largely the domain of ad people. Aaron hits the nail on the head here defining who exactly does the branding.

Drawing the Line: 6 Things You Shouldn’t Tolerate in Projects – Being successful is all about creating things you can be proud of and building long-term relationships with clients. From Client-Centered Design to Bad Names these personal do not pledges share some fantastic insight how to run your business better.

Almost invisible mirrored tree house built in Sweden – This was just too cool not to share.

8 New Link Types That Exist On The Web – Some of the link types most commonly used in social media and on blogs.

What’s Your BrandWord? -A business is a long-term plan to wealth. Many people do not track their branding power online – or worse, they don’t push their branding efforts far enough. The accumulative time you spend on building your BrandWord pays off quite nicely.

Looking At Life Through The Eyes Of A Child – Oh, if we could all live like kids again. This personal story hits on the things we can learn from children. – from the constant sense of wonder to the spontaneity of a child’s wisdom.

Favorite video: Your business card is CRAP – People still use business cards???? I found this very hilarious.  Like Aaron, I don’t agree with most of it, but it is fun to watch.

Of course there are more. Check them out on HeatherVilla StumbleUpon.

Related posts:

1. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 3/12/10
2. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 7/9/10
3. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 5/21/10

The World’s Best Frozen Margarita Recipe – Movies are a great source of inspiration. You can learn valuable lessons from watching how others deal with failure and overcome obstacles, as well as taking note of the perspective they take toward life. Listed are some great inspirational moments in film.

Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em: How business is like poker – Poker and business are very similar: They’re studies in money-making through opponent evaluation and risk acceptance. Aaron has a great comparison here between poker and business. By becoming a better poker player you will intern become a better business owner.

I’m Granting Wishes Today – Who has seen an authentic voodoo doll? I sure haven’t nor would I know what to do with one, until I read this. With a little bit of humor this personal story explains what to do with a voodoo doll if you ever come across one.

This is Why You Don’t Bury Your Blog’s Gold- Don’t bury your blog’s best content; find ways to share it with your readers. That can only help grow your readership and bring more exposure to your blogging efforts. Mack talks about quality not quantity when writing you blogs also, linking out to 2-3 of your most popular posts every week on Twitter.

Getting Ahead By Not Being A Cliché – Differentiation is like a bridge which creates the proper context for your work to reach the right target. When instead of being a cliche, you are different; this allows you to stand out. And when you stand out, three essential things happen: You get noticed; You get remembered; People get curious about you. This is the key to getting ahead by not being a cliche.

If you’re looking for more, see the rest of my favorites on HeatherVilla StumbleUpon.

Related posts:

1. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 4/16/10
2. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 6/25/10
3. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 7/2/10

Before Gary Vaynerchuk (the video/social media guru and all-star author), there was Gary Varynerchuk (the wine guy). Before Chris Brogan (the social media guru), there was Chris Brogan (the aspiring author). Before Biz Stone (co-creator of Twitter), there was Biz Stone (the guy with the weird name). Before Seth Godin (the “he’s-never-wrong” author and marketer), there was just some guy no one had ever heard of.

Yes, entrepreneurs look to these risen stars and aspire to be like them (or like someone like them!), and we forget that everyone started “at zero” with an idea and a willingness to work hard to get there. Sure, we’re willing to work hard but there seems like a huge chasm we have to cross in order to get to THEIR level. Frustrated, we work our butts off at our “mediocre” level (at least that’s how it might feel to us) and wonder what the X factor is that helped Gary, Chris, Seth, Biz (and many others) to cross over to stardom.

I was reminded of this fact recently when I read an interview with the owner of SEOmoz, Rand Fishkin. SEOmoz is a trusted source of quality SEO strategiesr. Chances are, you’ve heard Rand speak, seen one of his videos, scoured SEOmoz.org for search engine optimization info, or relied on some of their many SEO tools.

Just recently, Rand Fishkin posted a synopsis of an interview he gave with Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com. You can read the full transcript of the interview here, or you can get a shorter “Rand-ified” version here.

Now here’s what you’ll notice:

In 2001, Rand dropped out of university to focus on an existing business (that would later transition into SEOmoz). The company went into massive debt (Rand’s own debt was $500,000+) that would last for a few years. In February 2005, Rand went to a conference in Toronto that seems to have helped him get a handle on the SEO work he would later do. In 2006, the company turned around financially, became debt-free by 2007, and acquired investment capital. They hit a few speedbumps along the way but now earn millions of dollars in revenue and have a robust suite of tools and a compelling position in the marketplace.

If you read Rand’s synopsis of the interview you’ll note that even now – in spite of his position in the market and the money he’s earning – his credit history is bad enough that he can’t rent an apartment or lease a car! Rand’s trajectory to stardom isn’t all that old. Although he was a noted authority as far back as 2006 (which wasn’t that long ago), he’s still a regular guy running a regular business. He makes some good decisions; he makes some bad ones.

Here’s what it means for you:

No matter where you are in your business, your success doesn’t start with an X-factor in a few years…it is happening right now. There isn’t a silver bullet. Rather, it’s the work you are doing now that will build on the work you did yesterday (and so on, every day) toward your own position in the marketplace.

Have a great week!

No related posts.

Spit FAIL – I have had very distressing visits to the dentist, as I’m sure, I’m not alone. As usual, Kathy entertains us with her own personal story which shows that it’s not always to change things up.

Cocktail Lines and True Presence: the Power of Not Relying on Your Past – The past is never as relevant as we might think it is. Stand in your present power. An interesting look at how people introduce themselves and their businesses. What they do wrong and how to correct it.

10 Awesome Caves Of The World – A virtual tour of the most beautiful and astounding caves of the world. These pictures are exquisite beyond imagination.

Old Spice: The Man Your Content Could Smell Like – Why was the Old Spice campaign so remarkable? The genius of Wednesday’s campaign was that users could submit questions to the Old Spice man and, within minutes, watch a video response to their question. Old Spice did something social media experts recommend to brands all the time – they made personal connections with influencers. It’s a brilliant campaign. I can’t wait to see what they do next.

There’s No Idiot Check in MS Word- I’m sure a lot of people can sympathize here. With all the great apps being created some might think an Idiot Check function should be developed and replace the basic grammar check function. My suggestion -  we should just develop a mind reader app.!

When to Let Go With My Cat Chibi – With so many people on Twitter following and being followed its hard to keep the good and drop the bad. As Chibi the cat will show you here if you’re following folks that are not benefiting you anymore its OK to drop them.

10 Steps to Creating a Successful Twitter Chat – Twitter chats hold a ton of potential for bringing together people and growing ideas. The steps listed here will have you well on your way to starting your own successful twitter chat.

Check out more of my favorites on HeatherVilla StumbleUpon.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Related posts:

1. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 5/7/10
2. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 7/30/10
3. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 11/20/09

Summer and music. They go together. Good summer music should evoke the hot, sunny days that students enjoy between semesters. For the kids, a summer “anthem” should capture everything great about the months that you spend on the beach with your friends. For grown-ups, a good summer anthem should remind us of those carefree months of yesteryear when we weren’t busy running businesses and paying mortgages.

I recently read an interesting article about a music producer who has produced popular summer hits like “Since U Been Gone,” by Kelly Clarkson, “Girlfriend,” by Avril Lavigne, “Right Round,” by Flo Rida, “Tik Tok,” by Ke$ha, and “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry. Even if these songs are not your kind of thing, you have to admit that enough other people liked these songs enough to make them chart toppers. And the person behind the music is a guy by the name of Dr. Luke. While the artists lend their headline-earning skills to these songs, Dr. Luke is the music producer who writes, rewrites, tests, and then produces songs that become summer anthems.

The article, published on NewYorkMag.com, profiles this music producer and describes the process he goes through to create so many hits. In a moment, I’ll give you a link to the article, but first I want to answer the question you’re asking: “Heather, why are you talking about a music producer and summer anthems?”

Entrepreneurs don’t want to wallow in mediocrity. Most of us want to become successful. Maybe successful enough to ease up a little on the long hours or maybe successful enough to sell our business and relax on the beach. We can look to Dr. Luke as a case study in how to become successful. Even though he’s in the music industry and you might be in a completely different industry, here are some lessons we can learn from him:

• He has a process: He tests and experiments with different styles. He tries out different “hooks” on a song before finding the one that works. Likewise, you should always be thinking and innovating and testing in your business.

• He has a vision and he relies on skilled people to help him. As the article says on page 3, “He hears a song before it exists, then he figures out who can best help him bring that song into existence.” Likewise, you should cultivate a vision for your business and find the right people to help you.

• He becomes an expert, not only in his own songs but in the entire industry. He’s quoted as saying: “I analyze songs, think about what made them work, why they did work. I think about that all the time”. Likewise, you should know your business and your competitors’ businesses inside and out and that will make a huge difference to your business.

Okay, there are plenty of other tips I could draw from Dr. Luke’s success but, with these in mind, check out the article and then apply some of his lessons to your business.

Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. What Your Business can Learn from Video Games
2. Lessons to Learn from Starbucks and Social Media

Entrepreneurs are faced with innumerable marketing opportunities to grow their businesses. Speaking from experience, I have so many options when I’m looking to market my business and I’m frequently approached by business owners with a giant list of internet marketing to-do’s that they want to pursue. Blogs, social media, social bookmarking, articles, press releases, AdWords, ebooks, you name it! Being able to market your business in all of these different ways is exciting…but it can also be overwhelming. And I’ve found that when business owners are faced with a lot of choices, they end up trying not to do too much at once and they don’t do any of those choices very well.

So here’s what I would advise:

If you are marketing by yourself…
Let’s say that you are considering some of the standard internet marketing opportunities out there: Social media, blogs, articles, press releases, and reports. It can be tempting to dive into all of these but you’ll just end up doing a sub-par job. Your social media won’t necessarily connect with your readers, your blogs will be few and far between (and will often begin with the sentence “I haven’t blogged in a while…”), your articles and press releases won’t get pushed out as frequently as they need to be, and your reports will just get delayed. I see this happen so often from businesses that try to take on too much at once.

If you are going to do your marketing all by yourself (without any outsourced or delegated help), you should pick just a couple options and become consistent at them before building outwards. For example, start blogging. Once you’ve become consistent with that, add Twitter. Once you’ve become consistent with that, write articles. Once you’ve become consistent with that, add reports.

This system works because you’re developing good marketing habits one at a time, which will help you to succeed far more effectively than if you tried to add a whole bunch of marketing habits at once.

If you are marketing with help from others…
Of course, it’s a little different if you get help from others because you can outsource a lot of your internet marketing and there are less consistency habits you need to manage. However, you’ll still want to build methodically and strategically, adding a few at a time. Otherwise, you could end up with a lot of loose ends that need to be managed.

So, for example, you might manage your own Twitter account but you might pass article writing and blog posting off to an assistant. Later, add reports and press releases. Because you’re paying someone to do this, it’s not a matter of building up good marketing habits for you; rather, it’s a matter of managing someone else to do the work and remembering to follow up with them.

The web offers so many great marketing opportunities and it will continue to do so as new technologies develop. You can take advantage of these opportunities but you should do so in a methodical way to ensure that you do each one with excellence – and make sure it’s entrenched in your schedule – before moving on to the next one.

Happy Marketing!

Related posts:

1. Focus on what matters
2. “What Should I Do?” – Promotion
3. Pay it forward for big payback

5 Favorite Link Building Tools – Having the right tools will save time, return better results in terms of both likelihood to acquire a link and its quality. This post offers some tools that will not only save you time but also improve your link building abilities.

Magalog – A sales tool with untapped potential – I had not heard of a magalog before reading Aaron’s post. He gives a clear picture of what it is and the beneficial uses. “One way to make sure your sales material gets into the hands of the people it’s supposed to get to, and to make sure it gets read, is to use a magalog”.

Understanding why Social Media works, in less than 3 minutes – Well put comparison with a video clip and social media that shows exactly why social media works for companies. “Just as Pixar makes inanimate objects more real, social media is making companies of all sizes more human.”

Google Caffeine – What It Means To YOU – This post discusses Old Google vs. New Google. It lists some of the advantages we will see in the upcoming future and how it will affect us. “In short, Google may have gotten faster and bigger – but did they really change THAT much?”

The Secret of Today Versus Todo – Most folks use a todo list on a daily basis. I know I do. This post goes over why keeping the todo list simple will benefit you more. Designate your top tasks that must get done that day and keep them on the top of your list but, always remember it should be as simple a possible.

No, You Can’t Automate Social Media! – There are disadvantages to automating too much of your social media. Even though one might have x followers on twitter, it’s not going to be beneficial if all the tweets are wholly automated. Don’t forget to be human too. It’s that easy!

Related posts:

1. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 4/23/10
2. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 7/30/10
3. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 2/19/10

Once again, I’m taking one of the branches of the Social Media mindmap from MindMeister and sharing some of my thoughts and best practices on it.

This week’s topic is Location Sharing and the mindmap shares the 4 big location sharing sites: BrightKite, Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt.

We shouldn’t be surprised that this is where the web is now. The world just spent a decade with the “Gee-whiz, we can talk to people in Uzbekistan” mindset. We stretched our business wings and reached out to a worldwide market. That’s fine, but then we started to wake up to the fact that when we need a plumber or electrician, we don’t want one from Uzbekistan – we want one near us. The local web trend was born and 2010 (and beyond) is going to see a boom in local web marketing.

Preceding the local trend is the trend toward the social web: Sharing and building a community. So when you combine those two concepts together – social plus local – we shouldn’t be surprised that we get location sharing.

Now, before I jump into some tips, let me mention some of the things that I don’t like about location sharing:

1. First, I have some concerns about security and privacy. I’m not thrilled by the fact that people know when I’m not at home.
2. Second, I’m not sure that every business will benefit from location sharing to the same degree. I think it’s a really fun personal connection point but a business that deals with international clients won’t benefit by telling its clients that they are at Randall’s Bakery on 24th Street.

But, if you have a local clientele, and if your concerns about home security are abated (because you have a big dog or an alarm system or whatever) then share your location!

Here’s what I recommend for great location sharing:

• Personally, I like and use Foursquare and I think it’s the best one of the four location sharing sites. (Disclaimer: I’ve reviewed all four but chose Foursquare because I liked its simplicity and its familiar Twitter-like interface. I also think businesses are really buying into Foursquare more than the others.)

• Tie your check-ins into your Twitter stream to broaden the benefit.

• Use the location sharing device for what it’s meant for: It’s not just to tell people where you are but to share with your community what you like (i.e. “Get the triple-glazed doughnut at Randall’s Bakery”).

• If you have a community of active, local clients, use your location sharing as a way to invite people to stop by and say hello. But recognize that your clients (depending on what they do) may not be as location independent as you are.

• Don’t broadcast your location if you don’t want other people to stop by. For example, if you’re meeting a coaching client at Starbucks, keep the meeting private or else your client might become embarrassed by the parade of people who stop in and say hello to you.

Location sharing is fun, but it’s also new. I think there are some bugs to work out and it needs to be more broadly adopted before it becomes more useful.

Good luck trying this new technique out!

Related posts:

1. Is Foursquare the Next Twitter?
2. “What Should I Do?” – Content Sharing
3. “What Should I Do?” – Promotion

I work with many different kinds of businesses but especially with freelancers and coaches. With some businesses, the income opportunity isn’t limited by anything other than how many customers you can send to your site. But with a lot of freelancers and coaches, the income opportunity is limited by the hours in the day. In an 8 (or 10 or 12 or 14) hour day, you can only coach so many clients or you can only freelance write so much content or freelance develop so many websites.

While this time-constrained income might work at first, there does come a point where you feel like you’re on a treadmill and you need to slow down a bit. Perhaps you want to bump up your income or you want to tone down how much your work is dependent on you. Maybe you want the freedom to go on vacation and not have to tighten your belt for the month after your vacation.

Here are 7 ways you can expand your offering so it becomes less dependent on you. I’ve listed them in order from easiest to most difficult.

Affiliates: Find some businesses that serve the same niche as you and set up an affiliate relationship with them. This is a simple way to expand your income potential although it probably won’t make you rich unless you have a really responsive group of customers.

Outsourcing: Accept a little more work and outsource some of it to another professional who works at a lower rate. Either outsource entire projects or break them up and outsource pieces.

Downloadable: Create a paid downloadable – an e-book, report, podcast, a video, or some other kind of downloadable – and sell it. This one probably seems like the most obvious but it’s underused by freelancers and coaches.

Training: Train others to do what you do. Set up an e-course with a curriculum and make it either a self-study (so it’s more like a downloadable) or make it slightly more interactive (which can be good but takes up some of your time with review and interaction).

Certification: This could be something to add to your business as you start training people or as you build up a reputation online. Offering certifications can provide a certain amount of legitimacy to other sites while adding to your growing reputation. Consider this a step above regular training.

Membership site: A membership site is a huge opportunity to grow a community and earn regular, predictable income. Basically, your membership site should provide some kind of regular benefit that they couldn’t get elsewhere – for example, access to information, to software, or to you.

You’ll note that each of these income extensions do require some level of work from you, but the time you spend on them each month should help to boost your income to a greater degree than if you spent that same amount of time on your time-constrained freelancing or coaching work.

Make a plan to grow your income with some of these ideas!

Related posts:

1. Expand Your Business with These 3 Tips
2. Making Work Easier: Tactical Tips for Better Productivity

The Web Strategy Pyramid: A Well-balanced Web Strategy – Jason has come up with a fantastic guideline for boosting your web site. Broken down to each level, you will find advice on how to build a solid user-friendly web experience foundation. Starting at the lowest level (Content) and ending at the top (Pay-per-click ) Jason walks you through each phase.

Is Yours A Job, Career, or Calling? – As the old saying goes “if you find a job you love then you will never have to work again”. Broken down into three areas how would you pick your work level? For some the three categories listed here might all apply. Come Monday morning we should all be excited to start the work week not dread it.

How to Sleep Your Way to the Top – I do believe in the benefits of good sleep, but the Polyphasic Sleep method is not the way to do it. At least not for me. lol This article is  just a taste of some ways lack of proper sleep habits can derail your freelance career.

Features and Benefits Are So 2009. Sell To Driving Emotion – Driving emotions sell products better than anything. This post uses three great examples of how driving emotions will be your best bet when targeting buyers. “So, if you really want to sell, don’t sell the feature, don’t even sell the benefit…sell the driving emotion”.

The Person Who Can’t Keep Appointments – How do you deal with people that are always late? This post talks about ways you can defend your time from those individuals whom are always late. From making them come see you to stop dealing with them entirely it’s all in here.

Is a Lack of Perspective Costing You Money? – Refocus your perspective. Discover how to prevent tunnel vision, in your own business, and when consulting with others. Take the blinders off and look at the bigger picture you are apt to market yourself better in the social media sense.

Business planning and a cross-country trip – Aaron takes an event from his everyday life here and forms it into a tool for learning. This post talks about businesses that fall into extremes for planning. He breaks down the benefits in taking a middle approach “plan-to-the-next-checkpoint” using a real life situation.

If you’re looking for more to read this holiday weekend, there’s a lot more on HeatherVilla StumbleUpon.

Have a fabulous 4th!

Related posts:

1. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 11/06/09
2. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 4/30/10
3. Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 8.7.09