Seth Godin has argued that the new ride-the-wave economic future is in ideas. Once it was small farms … then factories, and now in the information and internet age, what’s hot is ideas. Or ideas that people can use, will buy, and want. Ideas like those tied to social media, computer games, conservative financing, identity theft protection, online catalogs, networking, self-help, do it yourself, search engines, whatever solves the next problem.
In this economic environment, the importance of creativity is that the person who can come up with and monetize the best ideas wins.
Steve Little argues that there are a number of attributes associated with success in business, the foremost of which is creativity. Little cites Robert Epstein, who argues that there are four core competencies to creativity: “Capturing, Surrounding, Challenging, and Broadening.”
Capturing ideas is not a new idea. Here, you pull out the index cards from your back pocket or purse and write down an idea right after it passes through your mind. Or you use a palm pilot, computer, voice recorder, etc. When you wake at night, when you witness a scene on the highway, when you daydream, when you are trying to articulate an experience … whenever you come up with an idea, put in writing, record it, capture it.
Surrounding yourself with creative people and resources helps too. This is similar to broadening, which has to do with reading and researching new things in a broad range of topics. As the phrase goes, garbage in, garbage out. On the flip side, the broader and more in-depth our exposure to ideas, the more we have to work with in forming our own interconnected ideas. Of course, personal contact with creative people can be stimulating and competitive.
Further, creativity neuroscience suggests that challenging ourselves with tough problems helps develop our creative capacity. This can be in the form of real-life business challenges or in the form of puzzles and games.
There are, of course, other ways to stimulate creativity. REM sleep is thought to be important. Interestingly, Little cites a practice of Salvador Dali and Thomas Edison. Dali and Edison would briefly consider a problem, then relax in a chair or bed while holding an object in the hand. As the person began to drift off into sleep, the object would slip out of the hand, and awaken the person with a clatter. At that waking moment (“known as the hypnagogic state”), a creative thought would sometimes occur, which Dali and Edison would immediately record and then act upon.
A word of caution. There is some debate whether certain positive or negative emotions are more conducive to creative thought. Brilliant ideas can come from the depressed, for example. However, fear of failure, Little reminds us, strongly decreases creativity.
For more help on increasing creativity and success in business, visit The Perfect Business Builder (with which I am affiliated).
Tags: creativity, ideas
When you do an internet search, do you want to see results comprised of a list that shows identical content for every entry, though on a variety of sites and sources? Or would you prefer a diverse mix of relevant entries with each containing different content? Google, for one, bets you prefer the latter.
Pretty obvious, no? You’d probably look at at list of all the same stuff in disgust and call it “spam.”
If you are a webmaster, duplicate content on your site or blog is sometimes preferable; duplicate content is not spam. Despite a common notion, Google does not penalize for duplicate content. It just seeks to avoid showing duplicate content in any given search results.
So if you have one article submitted to a long list of article directories, eventually Google is going to show only one of them for any given search query. However, if many webmasters publish your one article on their sites, users may find your content in ways other than by typing a keyword into a search engine. Particularly when those sites are popular.
Don’t be afraid of duplicate content. But if you want your content to be seen, write great content using keywords people want to find (preferably with lower competition among webmasters). Probably on the whole, that will work better than when you post your same content in a lot of places.
Tags: duplicate content
On November 16, 2009–and after years of preparation–ICANN will launch its fast track process for international domain names, so that web users whose native tongue is not English or who do not use characters from Romance (Latin-based) languages can use domain names using their own Korean, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, or other characters.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN has served to establish policies regarding domain names on the internet.
Tags: ICANN, international domain names
Each of us is a unique bundle of personality, physical body, and experience. Ideals of success to each of us is thus unique to the individual, however much we may share likenesses with others. Ideals of success are the end result without regard for the process. They form a kind of guiding light for our minds and affect our intentions and behavior along the way.
Or at least that is what ideals of success can do. Along the way, many of us lose sight of them.
We are beaten down by failure. Distracted by the “tyranny of the urgent.” Fearful of pain or loss. Entangled in commitment. Sabotaged by our own disbelief.
Or so says Steve Little, who has made a career of helping people achieve their definition of success, partly by unshackling the mind from hindrances.
I for one would grant that there are forces beyond our control. We cannot make other people’s decisions for them. We cannot change the past, in particular past actions by which we became guilty or embarrassed. We cannot change our fundamental nature or the law of gravity.
But at the same time, we can fear our own success lest, having achieved it, we lose it again or it proves unsatisfying. Does that sound strange? In how many ways have we learned to place conditions, obstacles, and warnings as barriers to our success? When we gain success in some way, do we even recognize it or stop to be grateful we have arrived in some measure? And so we defeat ourselves in advance of battle.
If we cannot control everything, we can control how we think:
about setbacks
about obstacles
about things that make us feel afraid
about things that make us feel joyful.
But this introduces another layer in my view. Success or the ideals of success must be seen in relation to Providence and moral principle. Providence may steer and enable me on the path to success as a blessing, or thwart my efforts.
My own ideals of success themselves are best defined by Providence rather than me. Indeed, they are subject to Providence. And the achievement of success can be either a blessing or a curse depending on my obedience to moral principle.
How Providence and human action play out is more than I can say, though at best I can believe in both the good intentions of Providence toward me and in the vital role my thoughts and intentions play in the success I receive. And so …
The first step toward success is for the mind to arrive at it.
… All of which I propose in part because I am interested in your thoughts on the topic and your stories. Your comments are invited. What is success to you?
Peter Rubel
P.S. If the big-picture market is driven by mass psychology and mass mood, so the success of the individuals making up the mass are each driven by their own–our own–feelings and thoughts. In this connection, Henry Ford famously commented, “Whether you think you can, or can’t, you’re right.”
P.P.S. Steve Little (with whom I am affiliated) helpfully divides success into six categories:
- Finance and Money
- Business or Employment
- Recreation and Fun
- Health and Fitness
- Relationships
- Community
Tags: success
Many small business owners, especially if working from home, are besieged with distractions and a plethora of opportunities … to consume their time. And often they work long hours, whether or not the things they do are likely to make them money.
Recently Adam Short and Alen Sultanic of Niche Profit Classroom (of which I am an affiliate) held a webinar regarding boosting productivity and regaining a balanced life, especially for internet marketers.
For one thing, they suggest focusing on tasks that make money. That usually means things like building traffic, writing follow up email sequences and sales copy, and improving product quality.
1) Before that, however, comes the first self-management principle: writing “to-do” lists. Brainstorm on paper, on a large white board, and/or online at a place like Base Camp.
2) One can then arrange the lists by priority, with money making potential driving items to the top.
3) Settling goals and deadlines for the items on the list logically comes third. Short and Sultanic recommend goal setting down to the hour of each and every work day … and setting goals for one month, three months, six months, and one year out. Base Camp helps with that too. Cross out the completed tasks.
4) Of course, goals without commitment isn’t going to get one very far. Short and Sultanic stated or implied three means of boosting commitment to meeting deadlines:
- a. Remembering the pain of long hours and an unbalanced life. And conversely the pleasure of time off.
- b. Find and use a mutual accountability partner. That’s what Adam and Alen are to each other.
- c. Reviewing goals and deadlines once in the morning and once in the evening.
5) Quit work on time. That means brief breaks every 45 minutes (or whatever you decide). That means stopping at 5:00 PM (or whatever you decide) rather than at 1:00 AM. In fact, that also means going to bed by 11:00 PM. Otherwise you will miss the most efficient sleep time, and your productivity will suffer from lack of sleep.
You are more productive if you work when you work, relax when you relax, and do not over-work.
6) Follow rituals and rhythms that work for you. Morning hygiene, breakfast, prayer, answering emails, tidying up, business, breaks — whatever. Your mind becomes more efficient following patterns.
In principle, you’ve got only so much time to get things done, and you set your mind to get them done in the time frame that the schedule allows. Ritual and rhythm help focus the mind to the “to-do” list that has been scheduled.
7) Attend to your health. Regular exercise. Enough sleep (seven hours minimum). Proper diet. Your productivity suffers when you neglect these.
Plan each day, then execute the plan for increased productivity. Can you beat that?
Tags: management, productivity
Are you an introvert or extrovert, technically-oriented or relationally-oriented, a leader or follower? We each have emotional patterns which place us in one or other personality type.
Steve Little has come up with a big idea: We are happier and accomplish more in our jobs and careers when what we do matches who we are in our emotional and personality make-up.
You have probably read statistics about how many of us do not feel happy in the jobs or careers we are in. Part of that unhappiness stems from a misfit between our emotional or personality type and our work requirements.
- Do you enjoy being alone so you can get the job done, but your position demands constant interruptions from people who need you?
- Are you a go-by-the-book kind of guy or do you prefer flexibility to come up with creative solutions?
- Do you hate confrontation or do you feel more comfortable when you are in control of the situation?
Steve and his team (with which I am indirectly affiliated) have provided a free survey and detailed individual report to help you get started. Also available is a 21 day program to help identify and get started on your ideal business. Other additional business coaching services are available.
Tags: career, personality type
On December 1, 2009, new
The FTC has not revised these kind of guidelines for more than a quarter century; technological changes alone suggest a need for revision. Manipulative or deceptive advertisement is not in the best long term interest of business or consumer. The new guidelines require full disclosure in various ways in an attempt to encourage truth in advertising.
That much must be applauded, but debates are forming over some of the details in applying the policies which suggest the need for clarification and perhaps revision. The policies may not only curb excess, but also chill legitimate business because the onus becomes too great or risky.
Some party may honestly wish to endorse or receive an endorsement about a product or service, but fear that some circumstance or potential circumstance about such an endorsement may expose him or her to too great a liability. Where the liability is to something deceptive, the fear is well-placed, but what about shades of legal meaning where the burden of proof may lie heavily on the nature of the endorsement?
It may be deceptive for a chemical engineer to endorse an automobile’s mechanical design (§255.3) since his expertise lies outside automotive design–but what if the engineer has some additional relevant qualification like a long standing hobby or on the job experience? Legal justice may be attainable, but only if it can be afforded without destroying the business.
The FTC Guidelines assume an inspiring and true testimonial may conceivably mislead the consumer into thinking the experience is reasonable for himself or herself despite disclaimers or caveats. For affiliates and affiliate providers, an outstanding testimonial may now be construed as “representative of what consumers will generally achieve with the advertised product in actual, albeit variable, conditions of use” (§255.2) despite disclaimers to the contrary. (A type of endorsement for the purposes of the FTC guidelines is a “testimonial.”)
- Further, “unless the advertiser possesses and relies upon adequate substantiation for this representation [e.g., massively expensive drug research], the advertisement should either clearly and conspicuously disclose what the generally expected performance would be in the depicted circumstances or clearly and conspicuously disclose the limited applicability of the endorser’s experience to what consumers may generally expect to achieve.”
Thus if the advertiser is to use testimonials, he or she must also demonstrate “the generally expected performance” in “the depicted circumstances” (which presumably must also be legally demonstrable). How can advertisers in general and affiliates and affiliate providers in particular reasonably comply (or know they have complied) with such a burden of proof? Need the evidence behind “generally expected performance” include product use where the customer or client has not adequately followed product directions? (Defining “adequately” might be a problem in itself.)
While some encouragement may be derived from assurances that the FTC may first issue warning of non-compliance (and it may just launch into litigation), yet the devil is still in the details. Nonetheless, in principle we again affirm the value of and need for full disclosure and honest representation in advertisement and in testimonial use.
Feel free to offer your constructive opinion on the subject. I am not a lawyer, nor do I offer legal counsel.
P.S. Jim Edwards has helpfully interviewed “Mr. Rich Cleland, Assistant Deputy at The Federal Trade Commission about the changes /additions to FTC advertising guidelines as they apply to Bloggers, Affiliates, Online Advertisers and Internet Merchants.”
Tags: truth in advertising
Ebooks, online reports, and white papers are easy to publish and distribute, whether for sale or as free offers to draw in customers or viewers. Despite an abundance of less-than-worthwhile ebooks, there is still and will probably always be markets for valuable information in ebook form.
A standard format is “portable document format” or pdf because (1) the software to open and read it is a free download and because (2) the author/publisher can password-protect the work against editing by those who might plagiarize and perhaps rework it for resale.
That said, some resources are available to help in creating ebooks.
- Creating pdf documents (typically from a word MS Office document).
- Ebook Compiler — for compiling ebooks from html files
- Open Web Design — for free HTML templates. Here, alleviates need to format the page for your ebook
- Ebook cover design
- Royalty Free Images
- Find people to interview
- Record interviews
- Notify of or find affiliate launches
- A great site for online “how-to”
See a related post for outsourcing.
Peter Rubel
P.S. Niche Profit Classroom also teaches principles regarding creating ebooks. ng8hjpzqde
Tags: ebook, product creation
If you have a positive attitude, your health does better. Conversely, anger contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease. Over time, fear stresses the adrenal glands. Sadness or feelings of hopelessness negatively affect the immune system. A recent study even suggested that “the association between emotion and physical health was more powerful than the connection between health and basic human physical requirements, like adequate nourishment.”
Emotional attitude also has an affect on success or lack thereof in business. Aside from attracting customers and business partners after the mode of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, positive attitude also helps in plowing through the dips and allocating resources. And arguably the ascents and descents of market indexes are caused by mass emotional swings.
But can a cancer patient’s death necessarily be blamed on failure to say enough positive thinking affirmations? Is a person who lost a limb responsible (legally or otherwise) to grow it back by thinking positively? Are there boundaries to the ceilings and floors of markets which attitude alone cannot penetrate?
Of course, part of the difficulty lies in defining what is positive and what is negative and what is success. Sometimes anger or fear is a positive thing in some sense. Is being happy about cheating or harassment really positive? Sometimes success is measured by intangibles or was most fostered by a setback.
That aside, for we have some agreement on what is good and bad regardless of fuzzy edges, the broader issue is philosophical. How deterministic is the world in which we live? Are we free to choose and responsible to do so? Or is there an interplay between the two, for example, DNA determinism on the one hand and the circumstances of social interaction on the other.
My proposal is that both function in our world in some way. There are limits to what can be accomplished by positive thinking. There are boundaries that make some beliefs impossible to fulfill (e.g., that we can raise the dead or that all humans can be billionaires). At the same time, in many ways we do not make full use of what we could and have yet to witness how high the ceiling of accomplishment goes.
Tags: positive thinking
