Friday, January 27, 2006
How to Stop Your To-Do List from Killing Your Business
"To-do" lists. You have them, I have them. Frankly, they're usually ineffective. But how could they be deadly? Here's two ways they are.
The "Out-of-Focus" To-Do List
The way that most of us put together a to-do list almost guarantees that it will be a business killer. What's the traditional way of making a to-list? You write down everything that comes to your mind that "needs to be done." But does everything really need to be done?
Put together a to-do list of everything, and you'll likely do nothing that actually matters.
Put "organize papers on desk" next to "cold call 10 potential customers" and guess which one will likely get done. Right. That desk is going to win awards for how organized it is.
Never put together a to-do list simply by dumping out on paper all the things that are rattling around in your brain. You need a clear focus to what you do, and dumping a lot of unrelated things on a piece of paper is not the way to do that.
Granted, there's a benefit to clearing your head by writing down absolutely every task that's weighing it down. Just don't use it as your to-do list. I call that a brain dump.
It works wonders for clearing my head of dozens of competing activities. But before you start clicking through the tasks on that list, make sure you have a goals list to compare it against.
Your goals list should contain your most important goals, the ones that you're really passionate about. Are you trying to build your business to the point where you can quit your day job and live off your own business income? Then that's the goal that all your tasks need to bring you closer to accomplishing.
Once you're clear on your goals and the steps you need to take you there, the things that best serve those goals will really jump off that brain dump list. If you don't set up your to-do list to serve your goals, it's too easy for you to opt for the easy and familiar over the productive. But filter it by how well it meets your goals, and the obvious choices look a lot different.
What to do with that brain dump list? File it away. Someplace safe. Someplace where you won't feel like you're discarding all of the great ideas that simply aren't the highest priority at the moment. Set them aside knowing that they'll always be available once you've accomplished what's most important to reaching your goals.
And you know what? You'll actually start completing those most important tasks.
The "Control-Sucking" To-Do List
There's a second way, too, in which your to-do list can be a business killer. Most people's to-do lists keep growing and growing as they dabble in one thing and then another, never getting any of them done.
And as it grows, it takes on a life of its own. It becomes a cruel taskmaster demanding ever more of us. And if you're like most people, the more you feel that something else is controlling your life, the more you want to rebel.
So, suddenly, all those tasks—the productive and the trivial—become the enemy, and procrastination sets in. You avoid doing anything on the list as your way of regaining a feeling of control over your life. But by rebelling against "the list" you rob yourself of making any progress toward your goals.
Here again, having your goals clearly defined helps you overcome the business-killing tendencies of a traditional to-do list. When your goals are something that you passionately want and you're doing things that you know will lead you to them, there's no feeling of losing control, no reason to rebell. On the contrary, doing those tasks you're actually taking control of your life and the direction that you're heading.
Know the goals that you passionately want. Let your goals guide you in what you do—and in what you choose not to do. Only with your goals guiding your to-do list will your efforts be productive.
Jeff
"To-do" lists. You have them, I have them. Frankly, they're usually ineffective. But how could they be deadly? Here's two ways they are.
The "Out-of-Focus" To-Do List
The way that most of us put together a to-do list almost guarantees that it will be a business killer. What's the traditional way of making a to-list? You write down everything that comes to your mind that "needs to be done." But does everything really need to be done?
Put together a to-do list of everything, and you'll likely do nothing that actually matters.
Put "organize papers on desk" next to "cold call 10 potential customers" and guess which one will likely get done. Right. That desk is going to win awards for how organized it is.
Never put together a to-do list simply by dumping out on paper all the things that are rattling around in your brain. You need a clear focus to what you do, and dumping a lot of unrelated things on a piece of paper is not the way to do that.
Granted, there's a benefit to clearing your head by writing down absolutely every task that's weighing it down. Just don't use it as your to-do list. I call that a brain dump.
It works wonders for clearing my head of dozens of competing activities. But before you start clicking through the tasks on that list, make sure you have a goals list to compare it against.
Your goals list should contain your most important goals, the ones that you're really passionate about. Are you trying to build your business to the point where you can quit your day job and live off your own business income? Then that's the goal that all your tasks need to bring you closer to accomplishing.
Once you're clear on your goals and the steps you need to take you there, the things that best serve those goals will really jump off that brain dump list. If you don't set up your to-do list to serve your goals, it's too easy for you to opt for the easy and familiar over the productive. But filter it by how well it meets your goals, and the obvious choices look a lot different.
What to do with that brain dump list? File it away. Someplace safe. Someplace where you won't feel like you're discarding all of the great ideas that simply aren't the highest priority at the moment. Set them aside knowing that they'll always be available once you've accomplished what's most important to reaching your goals.
And you know what? You'll actually start completing those most important tasks.
The "Control-Sucking" To-Do List
There's a second way, too, in which your to-do list can be a business killer. Most people's to-do lists keep growing and growing as they dabble in one thing and then another, never getting any of them done.
And as it grows, it takes on a life of its own. It becomes a cruel taskmaster demanding ever more of us. And if you're like most people, the more you feel that something else is controlling your life, the more you want to rebel.
So, suddenly, all those tasks—the productive and the trivial—become the enemy, and procrastination sets in. You avoid doing anything on the list as your way of regaining a feeling of control over your life. But by rebelling against "the list" you rob yourself of making any progress toward your goals.
Here again, having your goals clearly defined helps you overcome the business-killing tendencies of a traditional to-do list. When your goals are something that you passionately want and you're doing things that you know will lead you to them, there's no feeling of losing control, no reason to rebell. On the contrary, doing those tasks you're actually taking control of your life and the direction that you're heading.
Know the goals that you passionately want. Let your goals guide you in what you do—and in what you choose not to do. Only with your goals guiding your to-do list will your efforts be productive.
Jeff
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Good Guys of Internet Marketing (part 2)
Yesterday I decided to point out a couple of the most customer friendly Internet marketers I've come across. But there was so much to say about Ken Evoy that my post simply got too long. So I decided to deal today with the other guy that I think ranks up there with Ken.
Jason Potash
I first came across Jason when I was looking for a way so simplify promoting my ezine. I came across his Ezine Announcer software and it did the trick beautifully.
Similarly, when I started submitting my articles to article directories, I found that Jason had just come out with his excellent Article Announcer software. It was pricier than Ezine Announcer, but, based on how much time his Ezine Announcer had saved me, it seemed worth it, even at a higher price.
Article Announcer definitely was worth it and has paid for itself over and over. And I would have been satisfied if it had stayed at that.
But remember what I said yesterday about how Ken Evoy OVERdelivers on what people expect? Jason does business the same way. A couple of weeks after I bought Article Announcer, I got an email from Jason, saying that he had realized that Article Announcer would be even easier to use if users could upload their articles to the type of easy-publish tool that article directories use to make it easy for people to download articles in any format they want.
So Jason had gone out and set aside web space, set aside email accounts, and created an easy-publish tool that Article Announcer owners could use to automate their article submissions even further.
Now at this point, Jason already had my money and I was satisfied. There's no reason he HAD to add these extra features. But he did. And it made a product that was already worth more than I had paid for it worth even more. In my mind, that's OVERdelivering.
So, although my blog yesterday started with a gripe about a couple of marketers who cared about nothing more than making a fast buck, at least dealing with them got me to consider the other side of Internet marketing, too. There are some real gems among Internet marketers, as well. And I'd put Ken Evoy and Jason Potash firmly in that category.
Jeff
Yesterday I decided to point out a couple of the most customer friendly Internet marketers I've come across. But there was so much to say about Ken Evoy that my post simply got too long. So I decided to deal today with the other guy that I think ranks up there with Ken.
Jason Potash
I first came across Jason when I was looking for a way so simplify promoting my ezine. I came across his Ezine Announcer software and it did the trick beautifully.
Similarly, when I started submitting my articles to article directories, I found that Jason had just come out with his excellent Article Announcer software. It was pricier than Ezine Announcer, but, based on how much time his Ezine Announcer had saved me, it seemed worth it, even at a higher price.
Article Announcer definitely was worth it and has paid for itself over and over. And I would have been satisfied if it had stayed at that.
But remember what I said yesterday about how Ken Evoy OVERdelivers on what people expect? Jason does business the same way. A couple of weeks after I bought Article Announcer, I got an email from Jason, saying that he had realized that Article Announcer would be even easier to use if users could upload their articles to the type of easy-publish tool that article directories use to make it easy for people to download articles in any format they want.
So Jason had gone out and set aside web space, set aside email accounts, and created an easy-publish tool that Article Announcer owners could use to automate their article submissions even further.
Now at this point, Jason already had my money and I was satisfied. There's no reason he HAD to add these extra features. But he did. And it made a product that was already worth more than I had paid for it worth even more. In my mind, that's OVERdelivering.
So, although my blog yesterday started with a gripe about a couple of marketers who cared about nothing more than making a fast buck, at least dealing with them got me to consider the other side of Internet marketing, too. There are some real gems among Internet marketers, as well. And I'd put Ken Evoy and Jason Potash firmly in that category.
Jeff
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Bad Guys and Good Guys (part 1)
I finally got fed up the other day. See, I subscribe to a lot of marketing newsletters to see what others are doing and what trends are emerging. A couple of them finally wore out their welcome with me.
After a couple of months of getting nothing but solo adverts ("newsletters" that contain no content -- just an advertisement for some product) from them and absolutely nothing ever added to their private content area other than additional pitches about how much money members could make by referring other members, I gave up on them.
(BTW, I have NEVER, EVER recommended these losers in any way on my site.)
But cleaning that deadwood out of my list of newsletters brought to mind also some of the Good Guys that I've come across in Internet marketing. I've come across a lot that I respect and trust, but I'll single out only two for special mention because they have shown themselves repeatedly to stand out from even the most outstanding marketers on the Web.
I'll do this in two parts. Today, I'll cover Ken Evoy.
Ken Evoy
Ken is the founder of SiteSell, the company that produces what I consider to be the best all-around web marketing tool available, SiteBuildIt!, as well as a number of other excellent products. Ken constantly preaches that the best way to win and keep customers is to OVERdeliver on what you promise them, and Ken practices what he preaches.
How often do you buy something and then, months later, have the buyer throw in something MORE than he offered when you bought? Not too often, I suspect. But that's the way Ken does business all the time.
SiteBuildIt! is the most complete tool for building and promoting a business online that I've ever seen. Yet he's constantly adding more and more features to it as he gets ideas of how to make it better. And all of those improvements come automatically, at no extra cost, to anyone who creates a SiteBuildIt! site.
His latest newsletter describes how he completely redid the module that helps site owners find the best ways to make money with their sites. Did he have to do that? No. I've never seen anybody offering a feature anything like that, either as a standalone tool or as part of a larger product. But he tore the old one apart and started from scratch. The results? Beta testers of the new module have added up to an extra $1000 a month to their income from the additional ways to make money that the improved module has found for them.
And I see Ken doing that kind type of improvement all the time with SiteSell.
Log on to SiteSell's private forum (available only to SiteBuildIt! owners and affiliates) and you're surrounded by people who have used SiteBuildIt! to build successful, PROFITABLE businesses. And you'll likely run across Ken, too, in the forum—offering advice or finding out how to better meet the needs of his customers.
For someone who has built a business that is one of the 1000 most visited sites on the Internet to be that closely involved with helping his customers definitely goes way beyond expectations. Like I say, Ken's philosophy is to OVERdeliver on what people expect. And he does that to an amazing degree. Hmm... Think it might have any connection to his success?
(Incidentally, here's a top secret tip. If you want to get into his forum—which I highly recommend as a source of fantastic marketing ideas—you can do so by becoming an affiliate. Just go to SiteSell and click on the Affiliate icon in the upper right corner of the page. You'll get some great ideas there.)
Jeff
I finally got fed up the other day. See, I subscribe to a lot of marketing newsletters to see what others are doing and what trends are emerging. A couple of them finally wore out their welcome with me.
After a couple of months of getting nothing but solo adverts ("newsletters" that contain no content -- just an advertisement for some product) from them and absolutely nothing ever added to their private content area other than additional pitches about how much money members could make by referring other members, I gave up on them.
(BTW, I have NEVER, EVER recommended these losers in any way on my site.)
But cleaning that deadwood out of my list of newsletters brought to mind also some of the Good Guys that I've come across in Internet marketing. I've come across a lot that I respect and trust, but I'll single out only two for special mention because they have shown themselves repeatedly to stand out from even the most outstanding marketers on the Web.
I'll do this in two parts. Today, I'll cover Ken Evoy.
Ken Evoy
Ken is the founder of SiteSell, the company that produces what I consider to be the best all-around web marketing tool available, SiteBuildIt!, as well as a number of other excellent products. Ken constantly preaches that the best way to win and keep customers is to OVERdeliver on what you promise them, and Ken practices what he preaches.
How often do you buy something and then, months later, have the buyer throw in something MORE than he offered when you bought? Not too often, I suspect. But that's the way Ken does business all the time.
SiteBuildIt! is the most complete tool for building and promoting a business online that I've ever seen. Yet he's constantly adding more and more features to it as he gets ideas of how to make it better. And all of those improvements come automatically, at no extra cost, to anyone who creates a SiteBuildIt! site.
His latest newsletter describes how he completely redid the module that helps site owners find the best ways to make money with their sites. Did he have to do that? No. I've never seen anybody offering a feature anything like that, either as a standalone tool or as part of a larger product. But he tore the old one apart and started from scratch. The results? Beta testers of the new module have added up to an extra $1000 a month to their income from the additional ways to make money that the improved module has found for them.
And I see Ken doing that kind type of improvement all the time with SiteSell.
Log on to SiteSell's private forum (available only to SiteBuildIt! owners and affiliates) and you're surrounded by people who have used SiteBuildIt! to build successful, PROFITABLE businesses. And you'll likely run across Ken, too, in the forum—offering advice or finding out how to better meet the needs of his customers.
For someone who has built a business that is one of the 1000 most visited sites on the Internet to be that closely involved with helping his customers definitely goes way beyond expectations. Like I say, Ken's philosophy is to OVERdeliver on what people expect. And he does that to an amazing degree. Hmm... Think it might have any connection to his success?
(Incidentally, here's a top secret tip. If you want to get into his forum—which I highly recommend as a source of fantastic marketing ideas—you can do so by becoming an affiliate. Just go to SiteSell and click on the Affiliate icon in the upper right corner of the page. You'll get some great ideas there.)
Jeff
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Art and Science in Internet Marketing
Is Internet marketing an art or a science?
I was a theatre major in college. And because I had a focus in theatre lighting, design and scenic construction, I took a lot of classes that were art related and a lot of classes that were science related (optics and physics and the like to understand how to make all those marvelous and magical scenic miracles happen onstage).
It always amused me how the professor in every science class would start the semester with a lengthy explanation about how physics was actually more of an art than a science—that it required creativity and original thinking. Meanwhile the professor of every art class would start the semester with a lengthy explanation about how rooted that discipline was in science—that it relied on predictible physical laws.
Aside from what I saw as a certain paranoia that each area had that they were being pigeon-holed as either cold, emotionless automatons or flighty, unreliable kooks, I learned something from their passionate defenses of their academic disciplines: the dividing line between art and science is very thin and very poorly defined.
Is Internet marketing an art or a science? I say yes—to both. Or, more specifically, I believe that the argument is purely semantic. I see art and science as arbitrary terms that define two parts of an indivisible whole in life.
EVERYTHING we do in life requires understanding of basic, predictable laws. And EVERYTHING that we do in applying those laws to whatever we're doing, requires creativity and original thought.
And that applies to Internet marketing as much as to anything else in life. There are certain things laws we follow—laws that relate to the way that human beings are wired to respond to needs that lead them to seek out solutions. But applying those laws to the countless variables we encounter requires creativity of the highest order.
Any effort to boil Internet marketing down to one or the other is sure to fail. It takes both, working together, to succeed.
Jeff
Is Internet marketing an art or a science?
I was a theatre major in college. And because I had a focus in theatre lighting, design and scenic construction, I took a lot of classes that were art related and a lot of classes that were science related (optics and physics and the like to understand how to make all those marvelous and magical scenic miracles happen onstage).
It always amused me how the professor in every science class would start the semester with a lengthy explanation about how physics was actually more of an art than a science—that it required creativity and original thinking. Meanwhile the professor of every art class would start the semester with a lengthy explanation about how rooted that discipline was in science—that it relied on predictible physical laws.
Aside from what I saw as a certain paranoia that each area had that they were being pigeon-holed as either cold, emotionless automatons or flighty, unreliable kooks, I learned something from their passionate defenses of their academic disciplines: the dividing line between art and science is very thin and very poorly defined.
Is Internet marketing an art or a science? I say yes—to both. Or, more specifically, I believe that the argument is purely semantic. I see art and science as arbitrary terms that define two parts of an indivisible whole in life.
EVERYTHING we do in life requires understanding of basic, predictable laws. And EVERYTHING that we do in applying those laws to whatever we're doing, requires creativity and original thought.
And that applies to Internet marketing as much as to anything else in life. There are certain things laws we follow—laws that relate to the way that human beings are wired to respond to needs that lead them to seek out solutions. But applying those laws to the countless variables we encounter requires creativity of the highest order.
Any effort to boil Internet marketing down to one or the other is sure to fail. It takes both, working together, to succeed.
Jeff
Monday, January 23, 2006
Doing Battle With Distractions
Sometimes the distractions just seem to win. That was the case for me on Thursday through Saturday. I tell you, I was getting pretty hard to live with. I wasn't getting anything done because I was so wound up in every little distraction I came across—overreacting to emails, frittering away time on inconsequentials. I was a mess and nothing of importance was getting done.
Finally, on Sunday, I knew I had to do something different. I cut myself off from email for most of the day. I promised myself that I wouldn't even check it until I had gotten the top four things crossed off my priority list.
It was just what I needed. I got what I wanted done and went back to checking my email far more focused on priorities instead of letting whatever came into my inbox dictate what I did next.
Sometimes it takes just a little change in routine to get out of a rut.
Jeff
Sometimes the distractions just seem to win. That was the case for me on Thursday through Saturday. I tell you, I was getting pretty hard to live with. I wasn't getting anything done because I was so wound up in every little distraction I came across—overreacting to emails, frittering away time on inconsequentials. I was a mess and nothing of importance was getting done.
Finally, on Sunday, I knew I had to do something different. I cut myself off from email for most of the day. I promised myself that I wouldn't even check it until I had gotten the top four things crossed off my priority list.
It was just what I needed. I got what I wanted done and went back to checking my email far more focused on priorities instead of letting whatever came into my inbox dictate what I did next.
Sometimes it takes just a little change in routine to get out of a rut.
Jeff
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Researching Your Site's Backlinks With SearchIt! Free Internet Marketing Research Tool
The SearchIt! free research tool consists of a window with two dropdown boxes and two text boxes. In the two dropdown boxes, you select the type of search you want to do. In the two text boxes, you select the search criteria (such as keywords or URLs) you want to use.
Rather than repeat the introductory info about SearchIt! that I shared previously, I suggest that you see the October 2nd blog for this information. Or simply realize that it is important to click all the links and read all the instructions that SearchIt! tells you to do.
You'll find SearchIt! A LOT easier and more valuable to use if you do that.
Using SearchIt!
Last week we continued covering some site research tools, including ways that SearchIt! can help you keep track of how well the search engines are spidering your site. This week we'll look at how SearchIt! helps you learn how many other sites are linking to you (backlinks).
In the Step 1 dropdown box, scroll down under Site Research and select Back Links.
Click the dropdown box for Step 2: Select Search Type. You'll see the following options.
Back Links to PAGE (Google)
This option lets you see how many other pages (either from within your site or outside of it) link to a specific PAGE of your site. This in handy for determining the link popularity of a page, but be aware that Google does not display every page that it knows is linking into that page; it only lists those that it considers the most important pages linking into that page.
Type the full url of the page (although without the http://) in the Step 3 box. Include the www. and include the page name after the domain name (for example, www.domain-name.com/page.html) Click the SearchIt! button.
Click the link at the bottom of the intro page to see your results.
Back Links to SITE (Yahoo! Search) and Back Links to SITE (MSN Search)
Both of these operate the same, so rather than repeat the same information twice, I'll treat them as one. Neither of these options let you check a specific page of your site; they show only the links into your home page.
Type the domain name (without the http:// or the www.) in the Step 3 box. Click the SearchIt! button.
Click the link at the bottom of the intro page to see your results.
Next week
This Sunday, we looked at how SearchIt! helps you learn how many other sites are linking to you (backlinks). Next week we'll look at how SearchIt! lets you perform advanced search functions on multiple search engines and directories right from SearchIt!, without you needing to navigate from one site to another to conduct your searches.
All in all, SearchIt! can find you lots of valuable information. The main thing to remember is to READ THE DIRECTIONS. With as many tools packed into this one interface, you're not going to take one look at it and intuitively understand how to use every one of them. But the directions they give are easy, and they do more than just tell you how to use each tool; they also throw in tips on how to use the results you receive to make your site more successful.
SearchIt! is one of these free tools that really produces value for you. I recommend that you check it out and make it a part of your web marketing arsenal.
Jeff
The SearchIt! free research tool consists of a window with two dropdown boxes and two text boxes. In the two dropdown boxes, you select the type of search you want to do. In the two text boxes, you select the search criteria (such as keywords or URLs) you want to use.
Rather than repeat the introductory info about SearchIt! that I shared previously, I suggest that you see the October 2nd blog for this information. Or simply realize that it is important to click all the links and read all the instructions that SearchIt! tells you to do.
You'll find SearchIt! A LOT easier and more valuable to use if you do that.
Using SearchIt!
Last week we continued covering some site research tools, including ways that SearchIt! can help you keep track of how well the search engines are spidering your site. This week we'll look at how SearchIt! helps you learn how many other sites are linking to you (backlinks).
In the Step 1 dropdown box, scroll down under Site Research and select Back Links.
Click the dropdown box for Step 2: Select Search Type. You'll see the following options.
- Back Links to PAGE (Google)
- Back Links to SITE (Yahoo! Search)
- Back Links to SITE (MSN Search)
Back Links to PAGE (Google)
This option lets you see how many other pages (either from within your site or outside of it) link to a specific PAGE of your site. This in handy for determining the link popularity of a page, but be aware that Google does not display every page that it knows is linking into that page; it only lists those that it considers the most important pages linking into that page.
Type the full url of the page (although without the http://) in the Step 3 box. Include the www. and include the page name after the domain name (for example, www.domain-name.com/page.html) Click the SearchIt! button.
Click the link at the bottom of the intro page to see your results.
Back Links to SITE (Yahoo! Search) and Back Links to SITE (MSN Search)
Both of these operate the same, so rather than repeat the same information twice, I'll treat them as one. Neither of these options let you check a specific page of your site; they show only the links into your home page.
Type the domain name (without the http:// or the www.) in the Step 3 box. Click the SearchIt! button.
Click the link at the bottom of the intro page to see your results.
Next week
This Sunday, we looked at how SearchIt! helps you learn how many other sites are linking to you (backlinks). Next week we'll look at how SearchIt! lets you perform advanced search functions on multiple search engines and directories right from SearchIt!, without you needing to navigate from one site to another to conduct your searches.
All in all, SearchIt! can find you lots of valuable information. The main thing to remember is to READ THE DIRECTIONS. With as many tools packed into this one interface, you're not going to take one look at it and intuitively understand how to use every one of them. But the directions they give are easy, and they do more than just tell you how to use each tool; they also throw in tips on how to use the results you receive to make your site more successful.
SearchIt! is one of these free tools that really produces value for you. I recommend that you check it out and make it a part of your web marketing arsenal.
Jeff
© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Jeff Baas, One Stop Web Support
