A Return to Spirited Blather

However, I’ve been sitting on this for months and have come to the conclusion today that it’s more important to just start the conversation flowing again. And so, this post marks the first of that; I’ll sort out everything else out as the external need arises.

I’m coining a personal principle: if given the freedom to choose between organizing and making stuff, don’t let the allure of organization get in the way of making. I really should organize a lot of things here, but I am going to have to call down external pressures from heavens to make things happen. Being a person who is activated by the immediate needs and circumstances of other people, it’s important then that I create the means for which those other people can make their needs known. And maybe that will be easier if I resume the conversational blogging model I had years ago. We shall see.

Oh, and BTW, I am done tweeking this site for a while. I need to spend more time making cool stuff and less time worrying about keywords…

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Dave Seah is Reading My Mind

Why Design Thinking Matters - BusinessWeek

Design thinking has received more than its share of attention in recent years, not least from magazines such as BusinessWeek. Somewhat inevitably, a backlash has bubbled up, with designers grumbling that the concept detracts from the purity of the design discipline itself, and some executives skeptical of its worth outside of design agencies or creative consultancies.

Smartly, Martin acknowledges the tension and he remains steadfastly nuanced in his own argument that balance remains the key. Sometimes Martin’s language reflects his long tenure as a university professor, but bushwhacking through the academic terminology is a worthwhile exercise. An accountant can learn to embrace the concept of validity, or leap-of-faith ideas, through the help and guidance of a more creative thinker. Likewise, structure and data can help the free-wheeling, blue-sky dreamer make a difference. Neither can exist without the other for long, and Martin’s is a clarion call for all parties to lay down their defensive weapons in order to move toward a culture of openness and acceptance that nurtures a culture of sustainable innovation.

And while Martin emphasizes that design thinking is of the utmost importance within the C-suite itself, he doesn’t let readers off the hook. Instead, everyone can learn to become a design thinker, and should try to understand the position of their colleagues.

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Why Design Thinking Matters

Creative Streak: Solo Creativity, Part 1

As always, you should articulate the goal (what are you trying to solve?), and the need or problem (what’s preventing you from being successful?) Start with the tips below, but not necessarily in order. Write or draw your ideas on blank paper. (Be environmentally friendly and use old pages from your printer!) Don’t worry about how long you brainstorm. Sometimes it’s best to brainstorm for 10-15 minutes, return to a previous project, then return for another stretch of brainstorming an hour or so later on. You can keep this up for several days, returning whenever you need a mental break.

A variation of the “solo” idea, sometimes I write my ideas in the body of an e-mail, then exchange it with a colleague elsewhere in the world for additional ideas. Living in Australia, I simply have to wait for my network to respond with new ideas overnight. One final tip: keep your notes handy and visible to your eye.

1. Select a noun.

A descriptive noun conjures up different aspects which you can use to brainstorm ideas. Open to any page of a book – or better yet, a dictionary – and select a noun at random (preferably one with no connection to your topic or problem). When you combine this word with your problem or need, what idea does the “merger” suggest? If one word doesn’t work, pick another, then another. Go to here for a list of my favourite nouns. If you’re addicted to the Internet, try www.dictionary.com or www.thesaurus.com.

2. Or, try an action verb.

Verbs work differently in creative thinking because – by their very nature – they suggest action, specifically a change. Pick any specific attribute of your product or service that you believe is central to the problem. Next, select any action verb from a variety of sources (see above) and force-fit it with the problem. The first few “mergers” might be odd, but don’t despair. I typically go through 40-45 verbs in one sitting before I look back at no more than 8-10 good ideas. Again, go here for a list of my favourite verbs.

There is more at the original article.

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Too Sick to Blog

Titling, categorization and tagging rules for online publishing with Wordpress blogs

When publishers pull apart their archived content and start putting it up on their blog, they have a variety of style options to choose from when posting.

We recommend taking a little extra time to optimize your old articles (whether they are evergreen or not) in order to make that content as valuable to your blog (and audience) as possible.

The following style guide for unleashing your print archives into a blog is specific to Wordpress in terms of folksonomy, but can be applied to any type of blogging platform.

Rule #1: Include at least one primary or secondary keyword phrase in your blog titles and subhead.

Why? Because blog titles are so specific, you might choose to use a secondary keyword in your title (like “repurposed content” in the case of this article) and a primary in your subhead (like “online publishing”). If you want to get ranked on a keyword in search engines (and you do), this is your prime real estate to display them.

Keywords are very important, and the search engines parse your posts looking for the most important words in the text. It is important to highlight them. Which leads to:

Rule #2: Make sure your blog is set up to define your title and subhead in H tags.

Why? H1, H2 and H3 are highly regarded by Google as defining what a page is “about”.

In your “writing page” in WordPress there is a button in the menu bar titled “Paragraph”. In the drop-down menu you will see Heading 2 and Heading 3. I recommend that you use Heading 2 no more than once per page, and Heading 3 for your sub-headings. Edit your CSS to make these headings “pop”.

NOTE: Never use H1 in your content! That tag is reserved for the title of the page and you will be penalized by the search engines.

Examples:

This is H2/Heading 2

This is H3/Heading 3

Rule #4: Assign posts to a single category.

Why? From testing, it’s become abundantly clear that assigning single categories to articles boosts ranking on the category title. Hopefully your categories (or topics) are named as keywords that you want to be ranked on. This can also avoid duplicate content.

You should also keep in mind that your blog should have a few, very focused categories. If you write about cars, for example,you might use categories like Sedan, Coupe, Convertible, then use Tags for more specific topics like Corvette, BMW, and so on.

This is really great information for people that are looking to optimize their online content, and for more information like this, including audio and video with step-by-step instructions and real-life examples, see Writing for the Web, Inside and Out, by myself and Brad Shorr.

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Style Guide for Re-purposing Your Old Content

Do you ever find yourself thinking about something that could work in today’s market? An idea that is unique and unlike anything else out there in the big world of business today? If you are a savvy entrepreneur and ready to tackle the business world like I once was, here are four solid things to remember when applying your first plan:

1. Your business is going to be built on a great idea
2. That great idea is going to connect you to a market
3. You will create a plan based on what you learn, on an ongoing basis, about that market
4. You will adjust that plan over time.

The last item is particularly important. Good businesses don’t stand still; they don’t rely on a single idea. Good businesses adapt to the situations that emerge in the market. Good businesses keep moving forward; they become a nonstop source of ideas, not a graveyard for a single idea that once made sense. If you stick to your first big plan, and execute it with precision and enthusiasm it may take you to places that you may never have foreseen. Remember that if you love something so much, and have a great knowledge on your idea, making it work for you and your business will come that much easier.

Now that you have your plan, with your target audience in mind and you niche clear, you next develop a game plan for your business. This plan does not have to be as elaborate as a business school project, but it should outline what you want your company to do and how you want it to look. Jot down your best ideas on a single sheet of paper this is
exactly how I drew up my first business plan. You must be able to visualize your company growing in the way that your one-page game plan suggests. Think positive, and have long-term goals.

Thanks, Robert.
You can order this book via my Amazon affiliate link:

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Making Your First Business Plan a Great Business Plan

1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you sud­denly being “dis­co­ve­red” by some big shot, your plan will pro­bably fail.

5. You are res­pon­si­ble for your own expe­rience.

6. Ever­yone is born crea­tive; ever­yone is given a box of cra­yons in kin­der­gar­ten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Com­pa­nies that squelch crea­ti­vity can no lon­ger com­pete with com­pa­nies that cham­pion crea­ti­vity.

9. Every­body has their own pri­vate Mount Eve­rest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talen­ted some­body is, the less they need the props.

Number 6 is one of my favorites: Ever­yone is born crea­tive; ever­yone is given a box of cra­yons in kin­der­gar­ten.
“So you’ve got the itch to do something” is how this chapter starts, and I think that we all feel this sometimes. McLeod describes all sorts of situations and ideas that may occur to you to create something, but you are afraid that is isn’t “good enough”, or no one will want to publish it, or any number of reasons not to do it.

So what is his amazing and powerful advice? Do it. Make it. Put your heart and soul into making something amazing that will blow the minds of people that see it. “If you make something special and powerful and honest and true, you will succeed.” If you have even the tiniest bit of creative spark in yourself, you will know that his is true. It might be buried way down deep, but you know it.

Read this book.

Then get started on that amazing thing. I am working on mine and I feel awesome. In fact, after reading this, and an opportunity came for me to take another day job (see #7 above), I took it. Because now the time that I spend on my “creative stuff” feels so much more valuable, more meaningful. And the small idea that I had for a Productivity E-book is turning into something special and powerful and honest and true. And it is going to be much cooler than the original plan called for. Stay tuned.

(I get something like $0.50 if you buy it through this link)

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Book Review: Ignore Everybody by Hugh McLeod

These are the 10 books that [David Cancel] believe every entrepreneur should read:

1. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business Law
2. Bootstrapping Your Business
3. Purple Cow
4. The Art of the Start
5. The Innovator’s Dilemma
6. The E-Myth Revisited
7. Permission Marketing
8. Growing a Business
9. The Cluetrain Manifesto
10. Bottom-up Marketing

This is a very good list, and I would add Trust Agents, Tribes, and Here Comes Everybody.

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Books for Entrepreneurs

The good news is that my GTD system has survived the transition and I am pretty confident that I will be able to get back on track with posting and finishing up my productivity e-book by the end of the month.

Right now I am pretty busy training some new staff, getting expenses in line, and creating a community for the restaurant (follow us on Twitter at @WolfeboroInn), we will be Tweeting about our specials and other cool stuff.

Thank you for your patience and support, I am looking forward to having some good, real-world examples on productivity in the workplace for you shortly. Have a great day, and let me know what kind of tips you might be looking for in your own work-life situation.

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Work-Life Transition

How to Create Blog Content That Rewards Your Business Forever | Visionary Blogging

A Bunch of Ways to Figure Out Who On Earth Your Blog Should Be For

* Observe carefully. Pay close attention to details. Pay extra close attention to the blogs and people whose examples you want to follow. Hang onto their every pixel and word.
* Experiment. The only way to know if a seed will grow into a tree is to plant it. If it grows, it’s a good seed. If not, either it’s a bad seed or its growing conditions are too poor. Similarly, you should have the courage to try things out on your blog and in your blogging routine. If they work, keep doing them. If they don’t, stop and consider changing your approach or replacing your idea.
* Imagine the future. Think of the possibilities and probabilities involved. Should your blog become a company? Depends in part on how many gray hairs or wrinkles you think that would give you.
* Remember the past. What to write about? Well, what worked before? That’s one good approach.

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Who Is Your Blog For