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The aptly named world wide web has opened up new methods of marketing for businesses both great and small. The benefits of localizing company websites to target foreign markets are now widely recognized (Common Sense Advisory studies suggest an average return of US$25 for every $1 spent on localization) and many businesses now use social media platforms for domestic marketing, but very few appear to be using those platforms to promote their services abroad. For example, Econsultancy’s 2010 Social Media and Online PR Report reported that 83% of marketers were planning to increase their spending on social media this year, yet only 26% had plans to run campaigns in more than one country. Read more: http://bit.ly/MJM7kE
Via Martin Gysler
I know you want to be the best you can be. We all do. But sometimes we look for success in the wrong places or we try to achieve it in the wrong ways. Here are 60 inconvenient truths about personal development to help you stay on track. The acquisition of knowledge doesn’t mean you’re growing. Growing happens when what you know changes how you live. You can’t have good ideas unless you’re willing to generate a lot of bad ones. A good idea without action is nothing at all. It’s not so much about finding opportunities as it is about creating them. 10% of our lives is decided by uncontrollable circumstances. 90% is decided by how we react to those circumstances. What we don’t start today won’t be finished by tomorrow. If you’re waiting for the perfect conditions, ideas or plans to get started, you’ll never achieve anything. Read more: http://bit.ly/KEJdhO
Via Martin Gysler
If success depends on effective action, effective action depends on the ability to focus your attention where it is needed most, when it is needed most. This is the ability to separate the important from the unimportant, which is a much-needed skill in all walks of life, especially where there are ever-increasing opportunities and distractions. 12 Universal Skills You Need to Succeed at Anything First, let’s talk a little about ‘time’: There are two types of time, clock time and real-time. In clock time, there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. All time passes equally. In real-time, all time is relative. Time flies or drags depending on what you’re doing. Time management systems often don’t work because they are designed to manage clock time. You live in real-time. The good news is that real-time is mental. You create it. Anything you create, you can manage. There are three ways to spend time: thoughts conversations actions Read more: http://bit.ly/Lrta3v
Via Martin Gysler
If you aren’t sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do. 1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. “Lose 5 pounds” is a better goal than “lose some weight,” because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you’ll “eat less” or “sleep more” is too vague — be clear and precise. “I’ll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights” leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you’ve actually done it. 2. Seize the moment to act on your goals... Read more: http://bit.ly/KNvNwj
Via Martin Gysler
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people.” This is a famous quote from Anne Lamott in her book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Intuitively, we know that perfectionism is unrealistic and restrictive, a tyrant that steals success. In fact, there are many sayings and experts that stress the importance of making mistakes for creating and achieving great things. But still there are many people who fear making mistakes. According to Martin Antony, Ph.D, professor of psychology at Ryerson University and co-author of When Perfect Isn’t Good Enough, “Generally, fears are influenced by both our biological and genetic makeup, as well as our experiences.” We model what we see, Antony said. He gave the example of parents expressing their fears over making mistakes, which a child, like a sponge, soaks up. Read more: http://bit.ly/M6sEva
Via Martin Gysler
Once there was a man named Lester Levenson. This is true; I know former students of his. One day when he was in his early forties, doctors sent him home from the hospital, giving him only a few months to live. There was nothing to be done, they said. His heart was so weak he was instructed not even to tie his own shoelaces, lest the exertion cause him to drop dead. Now Lester, being a thinking kind of guy, decided he had been stupid to have gotten himself into this position. So he set about to correct things. Overwhelmed with a fear of dying, he began to examine his predicament. He concluded that it was his feelings that were causing all his problems, not others or the world, as he had previously thought. He also discovered that each of us has an inborn capacity to release our negative feelings. So he began to systematically let go of every negative emotion he was experiencing. Read more: http://bit.ly/K9KXhI
Via Martin Gysler
If we don’t own our minds, we’re like pawns in a game where we’re not the player. We’re being played. Corporations, governments, advertisers and even religions (oops, I said it) have gone to great lengths to control your mind. Sometimes their tactics are obvious, but most of the time they are downright sneaky. If we want to ensure that we’re living for ourselves and not serving some corporation’s agenda, we have to put on our mental armor. We have to arm our minds so we can first know when their is an assault on our sovereignty. Here are 10 tools you can use to avoid brainwashing and retain the ownership of your mind: 1. Decrypt media spin.
The media uses many different tools and angles to sensationalize things that aren’t inherently sensational. “Experts generally agree” can mean a community college professor and “recent surveys find” can mean the polling of 10 people... Read more: http://bit.ly/LtkcQN
Via Martin Gysler
You’re willing to achieve something, but your mind mechanism seems to defy it. So how do you bolster the willpower? What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that’s another matter. Peter F. Drucker. You want to top the class in the exams, but you’re not preparing well. You would like to blog regularly, but you keep finding excuses. You’re dying to get that super client, but your competitor swept them away. You’re trying to break free from all the messy stuffs, but you can’t find a way out. Sounds familiar? What are the odds then? Buckle up; it’s about you and your willpower. Read more: http://bit.ly/MIdYBs
Via Martin Gysler
Startups.We know the mantra: Team matters. Is this philosophy exaggerated? Overrated? Cliché? No. Team is the only thing that matters. Whatever you’re working on now, the half-life of innovation is so rapid now that your product will soon be out-of-date. Your existence is irrelevant unless you continue rapid innovation. Your ability to keep up is dependent on having a great team of differing skills. Individuals don’t build great companies, teams do. The nature of the Internet and global knowledge is such that even if you’ve stumbled on to a super interesting area of innovation there will be many teams tackling the same problem at exactly the same time. If you develop something novel that catches a spark you’ll have the world gunning for you over night. In this globally connected world product leads disappear in nano-seconds. Read more: http://bit.ly/J6aoLM
Via Martin Gysler
Are you ready for the fight? Recessions are created for people who want follow this trend... why wouldn't you make your own trend and start your own business? An excellent post with some interesting insights and examples. [note mg] Recessions are the perfect time to start a business: FedEx, Microsoft, Burger King and even GE were started during the recessions the U.S. has experienced over the last century and a half. If you’ve been thinking about starting a new business, the fact that the economy is down should not stop you. In fact, there are many reasons why the national economic situation should encourage you to start a new business now. You Have Motivation... Read more: http://bit.ly/L9RTWH
Via Martin Gysler
Sometimes what helps us to be successful in our professional lives is not such a great idea in our personal lives — competition is a quality that comes to mind. At the same time, we all have a limited amount of time each day to do the things that we want to do.
So for the sake of saving time and energy, I’m sharing a list of tips that will help you be successful in both life and in business.
1. Add Value
No matter what you do and where you go, you can’t go wrong with adding value. Simply put value is anything that people are willing to pay for. In your professional life, the more value you can offer the more money you can make. In your personal life, more value translates to closer relationships and strong personal growth. The best way to add value is to find the intersection between what people are willing to pay for and what service or product you can offer that is aligned with your values, strengths and goals. Read more: http://bit.ly/KqnTcb
Via Martin Gysler
Note mg: You search a productivity tool in various categories, maybe you'll find it in this list: Categories Online Office Suites Online Calendars Online Documents Online RSS Readers Startpages Invoice Managers Time Tracking Services Goal Tracking Services Project Management Services To-do Lists Personal Organizers- calendars, to-do’s, etc. all rolled Sticky Notes GTD Tools Mind Mapping Tools Online Collaboration Tools Web-Based Operating Systems Misc. Productivity Applications Music
Read more: http://bit.ly/JbcWIL
Via Martin Gysler
Maybe you want create your own infographic, here 10 tools to support you to do it. [note mg] Information graphics, visual representations of data known as infographics, keep the web going these days. Web users, with their diminishing attention spans, are inexorably drawn to these shiny, brightly coloured messages with small, relevant, clearly-displayed nuggets of information. They’re straight to the point, usually factually interesting and often give you a wake-up call as to what those statistics really mean. Who can resist a colourful, thoughtful venn diagram anyway? In terms of blogging success, infographics are far more likely to be shared than your average blog post. This means more eyeballs on your important information, more people rallying for your cause, more backlinks and more visits to your blog. In short, a quality infographic done well could be what your blog needs right now. Read more: http://bit.ly/K0s4LL
Via Martin Gysler
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Do you have to complete a piece of writing but are putting it off? A report, a blog article, or a letter? Are you finding that the moment you sit down to write, your mind seems to go blank? Crap! Writers block! What can you do about it?
Although, the term writers block is popular, this feeling of blockage and mind blanking is not specific to writing, but of any creative feats. Other examples include, brainstorming for a new business, dancing, musical performances, music composition, painting or photography. I’ve personally experienced this during my photography work, blanking out as I stand in front of a client waiting for me for direction. I call these Creative Blocks, where your mind just comes up empty and you feel lost. It’s purely mental.
Through practice and observation, I’ve gotten pretty good at getting past these blank moments, and this article shares some insights for unlocking your creativity. Throughout the article, I will be using writing as the example, but keep in mind that it is equally applicable to any creative activity. Read more: http://bit.ly/KM38du
Via Martin Gysler
Content marketing can be an extremely complicated, time-consuming, and expensive proposition! So I came up with content options for the time-starved! Let’s face it. Content development can be a complicated, time-consuming, and expensive proposition! So I started thinking about this in the context of my friends and small business customers who simply can’t afford that kind of effort. It led to this idea: micro-content, or creating small bits of marketing content when you don’t have time to blog, create videos or spend all day on Facebook. Let’s examine ideas about using micro-content for your social media strategy, assuming you are testing the water and only have 15 minutes a day to devote to this activity. Hey, I’m up for a challenge! Preparation Like any marketing initiative, you must have a firm idea of your strategy, selling points, and target audience... Read more: http://bit.ly/LEiFKi
Via Martin Gysler
I was recently reading Steve Pavlina’s: 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job and noticed that this guy knows what the hell he’s talking about. For this, I feel that it’s very important that I share his article with you just in case you might think like I used to. I too believed that security came with working that “9-5″ and hustling my ass off hoping for a minuscule raise. Sounds familiar right? When I decided to start Circle One Communications, LLC in January 2008 I knew I was taking on a major risk. I also knew that most people wouldn’t understand. Steve along with other successful online marketers seemed to be the only people who understood my downright disdain for being a sheep in a work force that taxed the employee for the benefit of corporate profits. I can relate to the employee mentality for maintaining stability but at the same time… Read more: http://bit.ly/KNyoX1
Via Martin Gysler
With the connection of AdWords to Google+ Pages via Social Extensions, Google is enticing advertisers to build a presence on the site. As expected, Google continues to advance its efforts to make Google+ a success as it further integrates the social platform into its core products to encourage adoption and increase activity. With the recent connection of AdWords to Google+ Pages via Social Extensions, Google is enticing AdWords advertisers to build a strong presence on the social site. By enabling Social Extensions, consumers will be able to see all recommendations a brand has received, whether they are viewing a paid ad, a search result or your Google+ Page. There are currently two types of Social Extensions: Personal and Basic. Personal shows you the number of people within your Google+ Circle who have +1’d your landing page or your Google+ Page, while Basic shows how many people across the web have +1’d your page. Read more: http://bit.ly/KUBskC
Via Martin Gysler
Yahoo!Launches Axis: A More Visual, Social, and Portable Browser... a great tool to discover on another way what you search. [note mg] Yahoo!’s got a brand new search tool that will follow you from your desktop all the way home. Launched Wednesday night, Yahoo! Axis is socially connected, spatially redesigned, and has some unusual features that definitely make it worth a test drive. See a demo and screenshots here. If you’ve got an iOS tablet or smartphone, you can download Axis as a stand-alone browser. (Sorry, Android users!) There’s also desktop plugin that works with HTML5-enabled browsers including Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. Read more: http://ow.ly/beLFl
Via Martin Gysler
Since long time you would like to start your own business, but it's the lack of finance is holding you back. Here's an article that will give you the information needed to make it through the bootstrap. An amazing post for everyone who want create their own startup. [note mg] Bootstrapping a startup refers to starting a small business by funding it yourself or through customer receipts -- without getting any external investment. Companies that go the bootstrapping route have their own set of challenges to overcome. This topic covers the latest news and trends on bootstrapping a startup, including best practices for success. Bootstrapping a Startup is part of Business Exchange, suggested by Anita Campbell. This topic contains 894 news and 374 blog items. Read updated news, blogs, and resources about Bootstrapping a Startup. Find user-submitted articles and reactions on Bootstrapping a Startup from like-minded professionals. Read more: http://bit.ly/LtituQ
Via Martin Gysler
Some of the smartest people I know continuously struggle to get ahead because they forget to address a few simple truths that collectively govern our potential to make progress. So here’s a quick reminder: #1 – Education and intelligence accomplish nothing without action.
It doesn’t matter if you have a genius IQ and a PhD in Quantum Physics, you can’t change anything or make any sort of real-world progress without taking action. There’s a huge difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it. Knowledge and intelligence are both useless without action. It’s as simple as that. For some practical guidance on taking action, I highly recommend The Now Habit. #2 – Happiness and success are two different things.
I know an extremely savvy businesswoman who made almost a million dollars online last year. Every entrepreneur I know considers her to be wildly successful. But guess what? A few days ago, out of the blue, she told me that she’s depressed... Read more: http://bit.ly/JDTk5T
Via Martin Gysler
Hire for passion and commitment first, experience second, and credentials third. You don’t want to be simply a stepping stone on an employee’s journey toward their own passion. Several years ago I was in the Thomson Building in Toronto. I went down the hall to the small kitchen to get myself a cup of coffee. Ken Thomson was there, making himself some instant soup. At the time, he was the ninth-richest man in the world, worth approximately $19.6 billion. Enough, certainly, to afford a nice lunch. I looked at the soup he was stirring. “It suits me just fine,” he said, smiling. Thomson understood value. Neighbors reported seeing him leave his local grocery store with jumbo packages of tissues that were on sale. He bought off-the-rack suits and had his old shoes resoled. Yet he had no difficulty paying almost $76 million for a painting (for Peter Paul Rubens’s Massacre of the Innocents, in 2002). He sought value, whether it was in business, art, or groceries. Read more: http://bit.ly/MI5das
Via Martin Gysler
You are not who you think you are. Your personality and identity is significantly more malleable than you realize. With a few simple tricks, you can exploit your brain's innate functionality to change just about anything about yourself. Here's how. You Are Not Necessarily the Person You Think You Are You are not who you are, but rather the product of many influences. The saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" exists for a reason: the longer you've been the person you think you are, the harder it becomes to change. The thing is, you can dramatically change who you are. It's actually not so much that it's difficult to change, but that you've developed patterns and habits that make it easier to do things the way you do them. Read more: http://lifehac.kr/KozIhl
Via Martin Gysler
When everything’s a priority, how do you maximize your productivity and continue getting things done? We asked eleven entrepreneurs about their strategies for staying on top of mounting piles of work, focusing on what’s important, and otherwise holding on to their sanity while building a company. Outsource, outsource, outsource
Everything may be a priority, but you are not equally brilliant at everything. Eliminate the unnecessary tasks and outsource your weaknesses so your time and focus is directed to where you’ll make the biggest impact for the business. Read more: http://bit.ly/JRdkjb
Via Martin Gysler
Even if this list is from 2011, you'll find a lot of interesting tools for today. [note mg] If you want to know what’s happening in the social web you need monitoring tools. Before you get out your credit card and start to spend money try out some of the free social media monitoring services. This way you get a taste of what is available and if you need paid services. I have collected 48 free social media monitoring tools. In the Group A are the services that I use regularly or seem interesting to check out immediately. The Group B is an alphabetical list of tools for you to play with. Here we go:... Read more: http://bit.ly/IDzrqr
Via Martin Gysler
So I thought that I might write a quick review of every self-help book ever written all right here in this one little post. Simple enough. I love the easy jobs. Surely it couldn’t be that hard, could it? I figured that maybe I could take the important lessons from every self-help book I’ve read and every life experience I’ve endured, condense all that into fifty key points and save everybody a whole bunch of reading time. Sure, global book sales in the self-help field might take a down-turn for a decade or so, but I’m willing to take that chance and put in a solid sixty minutes (or so) work for the good of humanity; my gift to mankind. Selfless I know.
I thought that perhaps I could follow Stephen Covey’s lead (the Seven Habits) and come up with my own list of say… Read more: http://bit.ly/K0qqcN
Via Martin Gysler
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