NO FARTING AROUND!

Here are the 5 habits that will make YOU (yes – YOU) a successful blogger.

Success Habit #1

Posting Frequently To Your Blog – if you have built up a strong readership to your blog, you want to keep your readers entertained with new and useful information.  They will not mind funny stuff, but you want to keep them entertained.  To do this, you must blog frequently – depending on the type of blog probably 1-2 times per day is reasonable.  Any more and you may scare your visitors away, and any less and they’ll figure you’re not keeping your site updated and they will drift away.

Success Habit #2

Adding The Personal Touch – are you making use of ghostwriters?  Do you use article writers to write posts?  Yes?  No?  Are you adding YOUR personal touch to your posts?  TELL A STORY!  You are telling a story, so add something personal to your posts.  Entertain your visitors!  Look at your writing.  Does it sound like your blog entries are meant for your companies corporate site?  Then it’s probably too bizzy.

Success Habit #3

Commenting On Other Blogs & Taking Part In Your Own – commenting has been talked to death.  If you still don’t get it – you’re hopeless.  Sorry.  Enough said.

Success Habit #4

Patience Really Is A Virtue – be patient.  Your blog will not attract droves instantly.  Some bloggers have been able to pull the rabbit out of the magic hat, but they had a plan in place before they started.  If you don’t have the luxury of quitting your full-time job to become a professional blogger – no worries!  Take your time at it, the money, fame and fortune will follow.  It will take at least 6 months for your blog to gain a loyal following.  No, you don’t get groupies out of the deal.

Success Habit #5

Link To Other Blogs – this helps spread link luv, it lets the other bloggers know that you appreciate them and their work and in 99.99% of the cases they will probably link back to you at some point.  Don’t be stingy with the links!

Success Habit #6

Advanced Posting – since you’ve been good, here is a bonus tip.  Post in ADVANCE.  If you can, sit down and do some research, brain storm then write 3-5 posts and timestamp them for future dates.  Trust my, you’ll thank me!

There you have it 5…er, well 6 habits of highly successful bloggers!  Do you have others that you care to share?  Please post your comment here and I will include it in a follow-up post along with your sites URL.

Technorati Tags: blogging, good blogging habits, habits of successful bloggers

Among my many responsibilities as a Director of Customer Service is that I’m in charge of HR.  I am responsible to hire, terminate, promote or demote.  I also interview many candidates for positions that are available within my department.

I have a lot of “trick” questions.  I’ll share a few with you then head into my main points with this post.

- If you were an animal, what animal would that be and why?

- How would you react if I told you your interview so far was terrible?

- What can you do for us that someone else cannot do?

But my best trick question is this: Have You Already Done The Best Work You Are Capable Of?

You will not believe the responses I get on this.  Basically there are only two responses you can give… well, maybe three.

It’s either:

• Yes, I have already done my best work (pretty damn cocky if you say this)
• No, I have not done my best work (hmmm… so what you’ve done is crap so far?)
• Combination of both and add – the best is yet to come

How do you think most people answer that question?  It’s almost always either Yes or No.  But the right answer is providing a combination of the both.  I’m not here to teach you how to score an A on your next interview – but this simple question can be applied to your professional, and personal life.

If it is your goal to work a 9-5 job (and there is NOTHING wrong with that, contrary to what a lot of bloggers say) then are you doing your best work possible?  Or are you coasting?  If you’re coasting then I hope you realize that you will stay where you are and never get ahead.  Your job will always suck and will suck more and more each day and your pay will stagnate.  You will never be called upon to take on more challenging tasks, unless someone feels some pity for you and thinks maybe you’ll improve — but more often than not, those pity fcuks are short-lived and you’ll eventually get fired — OR WORSE — ignored in your company.

There is nothing worse than being ignored.

How about in your blogging?  Or in building your internet marketing business?  Are you doing the best work you are capable of?  Why not?  You need to treat your blogging, or your internet marketing business like any other opportunity.  Do a shitty job of it and people will ignore you.  Do a good job, and you will get recognized for your talents and will gain the respect of other bloggers.

When you post on topics that you are not an expert in, are you doing at least some research to ensure that you understand the topic?  Are you writing with a passion?  Or are you writing for the sake of it?  If there isn’t a passion then it will show in your work.

Think back to your early years, when you worked on school projects in a team or independently.  Do you remember the passion you had?  How you wanted to make sure your project was the best?  I see my son approach his school work with this enthusiasm and it revitalizes me.  He genuinely wants to do well, so he works hard.  He is the same way at play, whether he’s playing with his Legos or other building toys.  He wants to show off his best work to his mom and dad.  Each new creation is better than the last one, his best work has yet to come.

You need to approach your life in the same manner.  Whether you decide to go down the 9-5 route, do the best that you can do!  Show your team, colleagues and managers that you have what it takes to get the job done.  Use the same vigor in your online business, or your blogging — show the world what you’re made of.

…by the way, the correct answer to this question (should you ever get it on an interview) is this:

“No, I believe that my best work is still ahead of me.  I am confident in my previous work and tasks, I’ve always performed them to the best of my abilities.  Had I not, then I would never have been considered for more complex tasks and greater responsibilities.  But as I learn more from the people around me, I know that the quality of my work will improve.”

So now let me ask you this – “Have You Already Done The Best Work You Are Capable Of?“

Technorati Tags: blogging, doing your best work, have you done your best work, Internet Business, internet marketing

Video blogging is not new.  There are many blogs out there… er sorry, VLOGS out there.  But how do you get into video blogging?  Just what is video blogging all about?  How is video blogging different from podcasting?

I’ll be answering these questions, and then some over the next few months with an exclusive series on video blogging. 

As part of the series, my goal is to interview video bloggers to gain insight into their tools and processes.

I will be posting the excerpts of the entire series on the blog here, BUT the full-post will be password protected.  In order to view the content, you will need to register for my blog alerts.

In preparation for this series, I’m asking YOU – what pressing information or questions do you need answered on the topic of video blogging?  Who do YOU feel we should interview?  Simply comment to the post!

Technorati Tags: blogging, Free Videos, video, video blogs, vlog, Vlogging, vlogging, vlogs, youtube

Hi,

So just what the heck is Twitter, and how can YOU use Twitter in your business?

Twitter markets themselves as “a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?“

So Twitter is like your SMS service.  Twitter allows you to send 140 character text messages to others that you invite or individuals that follow you.  The difference with Twitter is that if you have 100 people that are following you via the website using your custom URL (mine is http://www.twitter.com/oibo), IM or mobile device – when you update your page, they are updated as well.  So EVERYONE gets the message, not just the one person on your SMS.

I created a Twitter account:

Just click on the honkin’ BIG green button…

Enter some basic information — good to see that they don’t want my life history in order to open an account.

Nah… I hate giving anyone, or any service access to my e-mail account.  Sorry!  Click on the SKIP – waaaaaay down there on the bottom right, just above the number 3.

I’m done!  Now what???

Here is an excellent video entitled Twitter in Plain English that will show you exactly what Twitter is all about.

A few more resources for you:

• http://twitter.pbwiki.com/ - unofficial Twitter WiKi
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter - Twitter on WikiPedia
• http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/05/for_the_uberconnectedyour_guid.html
• http://publishing2.com/2007/12/11/why-i-stopped-using-twitter/ - excellent post!
• http://searchengineland.com/070410-181328.php - can it really help generate traffic?
• http://www.seobook.com/are-you-using-twitter-yet

If you still don’t get twitter – don’t worry, neither do I. 

Regards,

Technorati Tags: blogging, micro-blogging, twitter, using twitter, what is twitter

Hi,

I admit it, when the blogging started, I was skeptical, as the discussion of online blogs was either that conducted by elitists who poked fun of the online blogs as diaries of the dull or by SEO experts who identified online blogs as the latest trend for advertisers.

I thought – who would want to read my random ramblings on the internet?  Who would be interested in something as “common sense” as raising your kids?  Or throwing the perfect birthday parth.

Well, was I ever wrong.

Blogging, of course, took off.  That’s why I’m here again a few years later making a serious go of it.  Unfortunately the trends change so quickly, it’s a huge effort staying on top of the next “big thing”.

Then again, the statistics and studies are contradictory: for instance, one study covering four years finds that more men than women go online, while another study says women go online more than men do.  (Of course, as with any statistic you have to analyze closely, you should realize that women’s number would be higher as more women live on the planet than do men.)  It is also reported in some places that between the genders of online users, each has a different reason for going online: According to LBN (Levine Breaking News) and Business Report online, men use the net for news, sports, weather, and political and financial info, while women hit the net for social and religious purposes, to check in about health and “other personal problems,” to access religious information and to use email (more than men use it, evidently).

Well, since both genders seek some type of information, if you will, and since hundreds of thousands (millions even) of online blogs have in many instances replaced other online formats, it is likely that those blogs with the most available, accessible, and relevant content will get the most attention. 

So I guess I have to concede to the fact that those blogs with the most traffic will therefore serve to not only provide information but (hopefully, in their writers’ minds) bring in the revenue.  The fact that blogs with their little ads for pimple cream, marketing services or a myraid of other commercial interests are not as invasive as those pop-up ads and the ones that now ghost fly across the screen and are the least of our problems when filtering out the noise of commercial overkill.

Advertising gripes aside, though, some of the most awesome online blogs are those that dispense valuable information and do so with a most entertaining style.

Some of the best online blogs I have ever read can be found in my blogroll.

Do you run a Internet Business blog or Marketing Blog?  I’d love to add you to my blog roll – will you do the same?  Simply comment to this post.

If you will add me to your blog roll, I will certainly reciprocate!  Simply use my name “Mohamed Bhimji” or the name of my blog “Internet Business Opportunities” as the anchor text.

Regards,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogs, Internet Business, internet business blog, internet marketing, online blogs