Purely Business News

(Image credit: nordenfarm.org)

Control freak. Not exactly an endearing term. I took the phrase for granted until a certain situation made me suspect I might be one.

I won’t go into detail about the situation. Suffice it to say that control-freakish researching tendencies led to definitions, which assuaged my controlling mind with intelligent-sounding answers. Once I had the answers, I produced this list. (Listmaking is a hallmark of the control freak.)

Anyway.

According to experts, control freaks’ inner world is almost the polar opposite of the action they manifest on the outside. Inside, control freaks feel scared of disorder, even chaotic. They mitigate their inner anxiety by ordering the world and people around them.

Once they feel in control of situations around them, they feel calm on the inside. If people and situations on the outside feel out of control, the control freak reaches out and tries to order them again. This, of course, creates difficulty for the control freak’s employees, children, and coworkers. They can only feel calm inside by feeling their way is correct. Everyone else is held in contempt.

It’s not good for your health in its extreme manifestation. However, some jobs suit controlling types. Here are the top ten:

10. Architect. Frank Gehry was a self-admitted control freak. Others graced Frank Lloyd Wright with the title. It can only be an asset in a job where you’re presented with a set of parameters—space, purpose, safety considerations—and then you have complete control over the design you create (barring inevitable revisions). This profession caters well to the control freak’s independent streak.

9. Accountant. Corporate controller? The name usually gives it away. I *want* my accountant to be a control freak. I want her to be obsessive about ordering my receipts and expenses. That way, the obsessive control freaks at the IRS have a good match to play.

8. CEO. Steve Jobs, for example, is notorious for being a control freak. “Jobs’ approval is so hard to win, Apple staffers labor tirelessly to please him.” Bill Gates and Jack Welch are other famous control freak-cum-successful CEOs. The difficulty for this crowd lies in striking a balance between effectively controlling a business and controlling it into the ground.

7. Professional Organizer. People hire professional organizers to go through their clutter, organize it, then tell their clients how to keep the organization intact. This is a priceless manifestation of control-freakish tendencies.

6. Pilot. What better way to be a control freak than to be physically behind controls? Lists, assertiveness, and love of being in charge are practically job requirements.

5. Business consultant. Businesses hire these professionals to come in and tell them what they could be doing better. In other words, a critical mind, love of bossing people around, and a drive to make things operate your way behoove people in this profession. Consultants know best, and the businesses who hire them pay to obey.

4. Surgeon. With the high pressure and details involved in many types of surgery, it’s safe to say that you want your surgeon to be a control freak. If people subjected their burst appendices to go-with-the-flow types, they’d probably all be dead.

3. Chef. Many head chefs are in charge of the entire process of creating meals, from procuring ingredients to supervising the final touches on a flambé. Suffice it to say that this profession attracts as much control-freakdom as it does artistry.

2. Military Officer. Yelling at people obligated to obey is a balm to the control freak’s sense of inner fear at disorganization. Controlling people is the hardest task of all—yet the military makes this option readily available.

1. Air Traffic Controller. This job is the ultimate in control freakdom. Controllers sit in an elevated tower and watch blips on a radar screen all day. They order take-offs and landings, keep an eye on air traffic, and accurately call weather conditions. If they’re not control freaks, people may die.

Maybe being a control freak isn’t so bad.

Just don’t comment on this post without giving me your full name and phone number. That way, I will attempt to any divergent opinions by confronting you directly.

Otherwise, you’ll completely throw me off balance.

(Image credit: Transit.govt.nz)

Reuters posted an article today about how most people are willing to relocate for work. Relocation means uprooting a familiar life in favor of a perceived better outcome. It’s a big deal, and if Manpower is right, we’re at a point in history when more people than ever are doing it:

Manpower said 190 million people worldwide live outside the country of their birth, or 3 percent of the population — more than at any point in history. Unlike in past waves of migration, more workers are making repeated moves, or are returning home after working abroad. Also, many countries are both destinations for workers and sources of labor, whereas in the past the movement of workers was largely a one-way process.

Majorities of employers in Peru, Argentina and South Africa, as well as Taiwan and India, said they were worried about talent leaving. Fewer than 15 percent said so in Ireland, Japan, Switzerland or the Netherlands. Only 1 percent of Chinese employers are worried about a national ‘brain drain.’

(Side note on that last statement: No kidding. I wouldn’t be worried either, if my potential employees numbered in the millions.)

So relocation is a worldwide standard. How do you choose whether or not to accept a relocation opportunity? Start by considering the following costs and benefits:

PROS
1) Money. You could get a raise by switching jobs. Or your industry could be booming in a different location—for example, if you’re in the nursing industry, making a move to Florida or Hawa’ii might not be a bad idea. If you move somewhere with a lower cost of living, but stay at the same job, you’ll retain more of your paycheck.

2) Career. Jumping around can give you a leg up–if you choose wisely. The first time time I chose to relocate, it was an impulsive decision that led to a dead-end career at a sagging start-up. Luckily, I found a new job and got back on my feet–$5,000 later. Careful consideration of where I was jumping to might have plugged said financial leak. (Something I only realized in retrospect.)

3) New opportunities. If you move to a big city, you may be able to make connections unavailable at your previous location. Big-time literary agents, for example, lurk in New York City. Conversely, if you move to a smaller town, you might be able to exploit your big-city experience to make a more prominent reputation for yourself.

4) Keeping your job. Sometimes your choices look grim. As in, relocate, quit, or get laid off. If you like your job, relocating may be the only way to keep it.

5) A new life. Reinvention is a fundamental part of the American dream: The bum who became CEO; the schoolteacher who became a famous musician. Taking a chance at living this collective fantasy will provide you with tall tales for your grandkids—even if it doesn’t pay off. In the short run, a move might also refresh an unsatisfactory living situation.

CONS
1) Money. Moving is expensive. Finding a new residence, transport costs, and opportunity costs involved with losing time and friends add up. Fortunately, some companies cover moving company costs, airline tickets, and gas, helping assuage the damage to your checking account.

2) Career. It could just be a lateral move in disguise. If you’re moving for a new job, you run the risk of relocating into a dead end. Something that looks like an opportunity at the outset may end up being a bad move. Like what happened to this person.

3) Upheaval. Are you and your family in a good position to relocate? For example, are your kids at a school they love? Would it be a big sacrifice for your spouse to relocate? Are you in a climate that’s better for your health? Sometimes relocation pays in money terms, but costs too much when it comes to your personal life.

4) Leaving friends and family. Many people find it difficult to leave behind their close-knit circle of friends and relatives. Factor in commuting times and transport costs to visit them, and you may find relocation to be a raw deal.

5) Not fitting in. Relocation may provide you with a new dream destination—or a nightmare. To avoid moving to undesirable cities, some people choose to work in one city, then commute back home on weekends. The best way to avoid this exhausting situation is to conduct careful research on the destination you’re thinking of moving to.

I’m more of a quality-of-life person myself. I’d rather live in a basement in a location I love than high-roll somewhere undesirable. Fortunately, an increase in telecommuting might allow location whores like myself to stay true to our roots. All it takes is a convincing argument.

Not making much money online? Want to know why?

The reason is simple it’s because you’re lazy and running your blog like a hobby you’re sorta into. Imagine if you ran a business with the dedication you currently put towards your blog? Chances are it would fail to be profitable as well. Sound familiar?

I have a newsflash for myself and everyone. Blogging is citizen journalism. Whatever niche you’re in you’re competing with journalists. People who are really into the topic and gain satisfaction in releasing the latest and greatest news from the industry or writing in depth pieces on topics of interest to that niche. That’s where the money is at in blogging; being at the forefront of journalism online in your niche.

Why do you think so many Make Money Online blogs go nowhere?

A) because the author doesn’t make any money themselves

B) The author gets his / her “stories” from other larger popular blogs and regurgitates them

C) The author is quasi committed to the blog; the occasional update coming at varied times and nothing really written in an authoritative manner. (Do you write in that manner when you don’t know what you’re talking about?)

Next let’s talk about Social Media. I’m sick of hearing about how it improves traffic / this / that. Yeah it does to some extent but it’s ultimately just an ego booster. So many people so happy with Stumble Upon traffic or something similar. I’d go as far as to say I’ve never EVER had a conversion from Stumble Upon. Twitter has brought in some decent visitors but if you factor in the time I’ve spent on twitter the conversion rates would be one heck of a good laugh if that had been the intended purpose. I use twitter because I like it; if you’re going to signup only to drive traffic to your blog / site. Better ways to use your time.

Look at your activities online; are you working or just doing your “thing”. What’s “Your Thing” you may ask? Well for some it’s checking sports, stats from websites that have made no sales, scrolling through forum posts to find?? what is that we’re looking to find?, reading bloggeries and following the links from one site to another, starting an idea getting a roadblock or seeing something else that looks good and then going after that abandoning the first plan, find something else repeat.

I’d go as far to say that MOST people online who aren’t making a dime have an incredible arsenal of online time wasters. Also traffic from most sources is just an ego stroker. Something to brag to other geeks about through instant messenger or on some forum where you’re trying to act cool.

So now assuming you did put some content together, built that small “Build a Niche Store” or whatever else… It’s time to promote!I think there are a few types of web users such as promoter, tinkerer and the helpless.

Promoter: The kinda guy who will start yelling from mountain tops to anyone who will listen about the new site they have that is still UNDER CONSTRUCTION. You’ll get visitors and a bounce rate that would make a sophomore on scholarship grin ear to ear. Nothing like a good score from 85%-95% when we’re talking bounce. Not.

Tinkerer: Flip it around to the other type of person who spends ridiculous amounts of time online, may have web related health conditions coming down the pipeline and still makes no money… This is the type of person who will spend an entire weekend redoing a theme to a site that has no audience. These people rarely launch ANY new projects because they are so busy working inside the project that it NEVER gets done because it’s NEVER perfect. These are the sites that you find that look professional but nobody has ever heard of them; heck how did you even find it? This person is the polar opposite of the promoter. If they could meet in the middle something might happen; sadly you’re usually one or the other.

Helpless: This is the web user who has convinced themselves that they can’t make money before they even try. Everything is overwhelming, they have no clue about any technologies so chances are most web talk sounds like latin to them. They need to take it slow but they just want to make money. If they have some money and drive they are a consultants jackpot. They’ll spend stupid amounts for someone to install wordpress at the click of a mouse or for some theme that they can’t edit. They either get conned by consultants or never get anywhere because they are suffering from information overload. SADLY these are usually the people with enough life experience on a topic to make a worthy site.

Who is Making Money with Blogs?: Most people making money online are NOT doing it through a blog. Every niche has their big boys who are pulling in the majority of the money for the niche. They have older, long established blogs and usually treat their online ventures like a business. Also they usually sell you something they made like an ebook or something. Typically they aren’t just making it off adsense or pay per post.

Who is Making Money Online?: A friend of mine was selling a large site on sitepoint and I brokered the deal. In the process I chatted with a few gents that had pretty hefty domain portfolios and had the pleasure of picking their brains. I learned from them which I guess I had already learned but never realized that content sites typically don’t pull in the bank. Content is good to get someone who is interested in your niche but it’s commerce sites that make $$$. People looking for content are typically doing just that; looking for free information. Where we got the crazy idea that we’d monetize all of it I’m not sure. Obviously some niches are easier for monetizing content traffic then others.

This is how I believe people are making money online:

1) PPC w/ Affiliates: They make an affiliate site geared to SELL; then advertise it with pay per click on major engines.

2) Affiliates w/ Article Marketing: Make an affiliate site geared to SELL; then write articles that are precursors to your items for sale. Let’s say you sell a cream that clears an embarrassing condition; you write an article about how embarrassing the condition is highlighting why it’s embarrassing; what others would think of it and at the end a link to your STORE. The point of the article should be to give them what they were searching for but also to buy NOW from you.

3) Advertising: This is where MOST think they will earn and sadly it’s the HARDEST to make a living from. There are probably a billion +++ sites online and the top 1,000-10,000 get 90%+ of the traffic I’d say.(kinda like the world gros income sadly) Most of us go to the same sites everyday and its the same sites that others go to. Building a massive hub if isn’t easy; neither is making a tone (000’s a month) from advertising. Part of the reason with advertising is if the advertiser doesn’t make money first month they cancel. Now if the advertiser running an affiliate add on your site keeps re-registering doesn’t it tell you that they are making more from the ad that you are charging so why don’t you stop charging for the ad and put your own affiliate banner up?

4) Consultants: Some are good, some are bad, some are selling snake oil. For the most part if these consultants are such pros why aren’t they busy doing it? Why aren’t they making passive income and living on a beach? When hiring consultants I’d say never hire someone who sells a dream. Hire someone who performs a service; the more defined the better. For instance if you need something coded hire a coder. Need someone to build your link portfolio? Hire an SEO with a track record etc… Need an article written about an obscure medical condition? Hire a Doctor who creates content. Just make sure you’re paying someone with a track record who is performing a service / delivering a product that will help you achieve your goal.

This has turned into quite the Monday morning rant hasn’t it? To sum this all up; if you’re building a blog treat it / run it like a business or you’re wasting your time unless you’re purely doing it for fun. I’m talking about making money online though. Start looking at your time spent online. If making money is your goal are you using your time well or are you simply just wasting it? Every hour you spend online is something you could of spent doing something else. Do you have people in your life that you don’t spend enough time with because you’re “working” towards nowhere?

Take a look at your computer habits; where your energy is going and what you’re getting from it. If making $$$ online is your goal; the majority of your time should be spent planning, researching, planning before you ever pick up a mouse to start building the first line of code. Treat it like a business and make a plan; not like a hobby that will miraculously start paying your bills. YOU’RE DREAMING! The computer is simply a tool that many of us treat as a hobby for it’s other functions. To put this in perspective imagine waking up every morning and running to fetch your hammer and hammering nails in everywhere but towards no end? Your loved ones will ask if you would like to hang out and you’ll say “I can’t I’m working”; are you? What’s the point. If you’re using the computer because you like it / enjoy it fine; do that but don’t fool yourself that WORKING on the computer and PLAYING on the computer are the same thing. They’re not.

Business Advice, Uncategorized

Unilever creates ads for its Sunsilk hair products that target southeast Asia. Check out this commercial, which the poster claims is intended for ten countries in Asia (India, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and Myanmar):

The Chicago Journal of Consumer Research released an article entitled “Marketers Are Creating an Imaginary, Cross-Cultural, Asian World.” They describe how international advertisers meld cultural characteristics of major centers such as Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul to create an all-encompassing–but anonymous–Asia:

“Cultural referents from cities of influence…are combined together to produce brand images that are clearly Asian, but not from a particular nation,” write the authors.The researchers analyzed marketing strategies and advertising campaigns of Asian brands such as…Zuji, a travel website.

In the case of…Zuji, the researchers found that the consortium of major airlines “has no home country, is designed to be clearly Asian and modern, uses a Hong Kong-born globally popular actor as the brand’s model, uses green and blue for the logo to appeal to the Thai, its name is derived from Mandarin, follows the spatial practices of feng shui, uses an East Asian style of calligraphy, and uses the tagline “Your Travel Guru,” which is most readily associated with India.”

It’s true. On a recent trip to India and Thailand, I noticed that actors in certain commercials had neutral appearances indicating a pan-Asiatic identity. For example, one lotion commercial featured a woman with Korean features in modern Indian dress.

Such cultural mixing, according to the authors, demonstrates that Asian corporations are redefining globalization. “Whereas Western Marketers still sell Asian brands through the idea of an exotic, feminine Asia, Asian marketers create campaigns with a more contemporary, modern, and urban vision of Asia,” write the authors.

Makes me wonder two things. One, as the global balance of power shifts more and more towards Asia, will Americans be seeing more contemporary Asian-style commercials on TV? And two, isn’t it part of advertisers’ jobs to create an imaginary setting? How is an imaginary Asia more pivotal to globalization than, say, an imaginary Latin America?

This may seem kinda crazy but is twitter replacing traditional RSS feeds? Someone who subscribes to your RSS feed just subscribes to posts from a blog. Someone subscribing to your twitter feed is subscribing essentially to YOU. They want to hear what you have to say or at least they want to hear most of it.

With the advent of TwitterFeed you can have it set so that any blog post you make on any blog you own is automatically tweeted into twitter. You may have 50 subscribers on your humor blog, 230 on your business blog and 35 on your health blog. Traditionally you’d send that info to your subscribers and that’s it. Realistically if someone likes the way you handle and write things in one domain they could enjoy your work from others.

Imagine you had 2,000 twitter followers. Each time you make a post it’s sent to them. Sure it’s not in a feed reader but many with feed readers have them jammed with other feeds or don’t necessarily check them each day. Also people on twitter are a different breed to some extent. It’s people that are actively interacting, sharing etc… Also if someone likes your post they will most likely retweet it by sending it off to their followers list. Write something great and it can go viral really fast thanks to social media; twitter in particular.

I will say use twitterfeed cautiously and only if your blogs are somewhat related. If you make 5-10 posts a day on all your blogs it will look like link spamming ESPECIALLY if you aren’t active. If you make 70 tweets a day and 8 are links to your blog who cares. If you make 12 a day and it’s basically just links to your blog I don’t think you’ll retain your new friends very long. How would you like to basically just get a stream of links from someone? I wouldn’t.

If you want to send lot’s of links be smart about it. Send links that aren’t yours but of substantial value to anyone in the online world and of course mix some of yours in there. People aren’t stupid and your twitter friends are just that; people. Send them useful things and engage in conversations. If something you wrote is helpful than by all means send it; if not don’t bother.

Ultimately I see twitter as an active RSS feed rather than a passive one. Passive could be compared to a 1 way communication channel such as a radio or television. Twitter is like a telephone; you send out info but each subscriber can answer back at their leisure.

With all this being said do you think that twitter and the similar services start sprouting up may lead the charge to eventually replace the traditional RSS? I’ll be posting something in the not to distant future about my experience with twitter after ~1 month of use. If you aren’t already on twitter; just do it.

Blogging, Uncategorized

When it comes to the all to elusive goal of financial freedom; information is key!

Some of you may be scratching your head and saying I thought income and spending less than you brought in was the key? It’s a large part of the puzzle but if you aren’t managing your funds and tracking where they are going how will you ever patch up some leaks in your financial “ship”?

Knowing where your money is going, not going and how much you have at any given time are all key to being financially successful. It’s easy to spend like an idiot but still think you’re doing ok until that credit card bill or unexpected car repair smacks you into the poor house if you haven’t planned. Even if you have a huge nest egg if you spend without recourse you won’t keep it for long as chances are you had a different mental attitude when you amassed the funds compared to when you depleted them.

In 2001 I used to track all my income, expenses everything to the dollar almost. Whenever I’d receive change I’d write it off as rest in change. Change was the only thing I did not account. At anytime I could have a graph / pie chart showing me where my money was, how much was coming in, out, what my major expenses were etc. Since building a good cushion I stopped using the same techniques I had originally and what should not be to my surprise my funds have depleted.

It’s easy to spend $5, $10-$20 here and there and if you don’t keep track you really have no clue how much you’ve wasted. I’m starting to track all my income/expenditures again. A huge bonus of doing this is that since you have to mark it down you’re less likely to spend impulsively and by following you will only have 1 month of total shock. You add up your lunches for the month and boom $200+ or other expenses that are draining your account; you may have 5-10 that equal $50-$125 a month… That’s a lot of money when you add it all up.

Point of this post is track your funds if you wish to be in charge of them. A fool and his / her money shall soon part is true. If accumulating money and holding onto it was the path of least resistance in this world we’d all be rich on beach somewhere wouldn’t we?

You should keep money to one side for insurance incase of unforseen bills, but you can still be wise even in these occasions, does the bill need to be paid now? Can you change suppliers to lessen the bill etc, finding new ways of saving money is just as important as knowing where the money goes.

So the latest rumor from the never ending rumor mill that is Silicon Valley is that Microsoft is trying to buy the search only component of Yahoo for $20 Billion than take the additional $25,000,000,000 to buy out Facebook which would give them quite the arsenal to begin reclaiming eyeballs from the Google empire.

Click here for the full article.  How did I find out about this?

Enjoy this? Subscribe or Join me on Twitter.

Technology

You have to accept in life that not everything is easy. You have to accept in life that if you take the path of least resistance you’ll end up in the largest pool at the end with the least options. You have to realize and accept in life that anything worth doing takes effort.

It’s sad that so many people take the “effort” to go to work everyday but don’t go that extra 2% and make a lunch or cook a dinner. I mean if you buy a coffee or two a day, buy lunch out ~5-8$+ and then when you get home have nothing in the fridge because you were too lazy the night before so tonight you’re lazy and order in or go do pickup. Does this sound familiar?

I think many people go through phases in their life; one phase is that of the beaten down path to nowhere of least resistance. It’s so easy all you have to do is NOTHING and go for the ride. The sad part is this easy do nothing ride always has an abrupt ending usually saddling the voyager with financial stress, problems or even ruin.

Life is about being better everyday; it’s about putting your energy into productive things that make you money and having the mindset of preserving the funds you receive for your energy. Why waste your energy all day at work just to throw the output around like it’s abundant? We’re a society living with unlimited wants and scarce resources. Read that again if you hasn’t sunk in because it’s true.

Energy via physical or mental labor is all we really have on this planet to earn for us until we’ve gotten to a position where you hire others inputs or your own outputs have amounted to such a substantial sum of money that it will work for itself and you.

It’s been a while since I was studying Economics but I do remember that Labor + Capital are the only real inputs we have control over in our lives to create outputs. It’s funny how we can be too lazy to cook dinner yet immediately forget that the $ we spent on takeout was earned earlier that day via physical or mental labor that predominantly is not of our choosing. You can like your job but if you made substantial income or had enough capital chances are you would spend your time differently wouldn’t you?

Take the challenge today. Make today the start of the rest of your life. Make today worth it. Make today the first day that you get home and lie your head on the pillow and say I played the game of life the smart way.

We become bored and tired with life through working sometimes so it’s so easy to slip away and just waste the money you worked so hard to obtain. The powers at be WANT this to happen to some extent. Imagine if everyone had an empowered mental attitude / perception? Imagine a world where the majority of people managed their financial lives similar to a way that some of the largest corporations do; cutting costs and finding cheap sources for the products and services they need.

We’re lazy and that is the problem. We love conveniences and most of us waste our money day in day out then complain about how working life isn’t so hot or envy someone who has discipline. Statistically more people reasearch their products online then purchase them at a retail store. What the heck!? Why not try them on at retail store then order them online and wait a week… Did you go to the store naked? Of course you didn’t and chances are unless you’re leaving on a trip tomorrow you don’t need that consumer product that you just bought and paid not only the store owners rent, profit, fees etc…

I’m rambling now but you get the gist of what I’m saying. We’re our own sovereign society inside us. We can complain how the powers at be waste their money and spend aimlessly but why do we have to follow the same path of least resistance? Some of you may be doing a good job but I assure you; you could be doing better.

Ever wondered where your life would be if you became the person you are inside instead of just a mold of what other people around you are doing or who you’ve been led to believe you are through years of education destroying your ambition and training you to push paper in someone else’s dream?

Are you living your dream or are you just a cog in someone else’s. I’m working on an uber niche project which is going to be fun and hopefully profitable. I’m done taking the easy route.

Want a quick example of how these concepts affect everything in life from your finances, relationships, health you name it? Look at this blog I didn’t post for a few days; sure I was on business but I still could of made quick posts and I did spend time online. Looks what’s happened; about a week ago we had 240 subscribers; now it’s down to 197 of you loyal ones(thanks). In life everything is growing or wilting; sadly many of us go to work then throw it away so we’re just spinning our tires and wondering why we don’t have more.

Make today the best day you’ve ever had. No more tomorrow because remember that all you ever have now or ever will is the moment of NOW. If you don’t feel like doing X now you won’t feel like doing it in another “NOW” moment further down the road as you’ll probably also have the regret of if I had done this where would I be. Stop wondering.

Sorry to burst your bubble but moving forward and growing takes some work. You know when you’re in the path of least resistance and you know when you have that special edge working. When you lay your head on the pillow tonight I want you to say “wow; I moved forward today in many ways”. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m done taking the path of least resistance; it never did bring happiness and wealth and you know what; it never will.

It’s your day; your life; your destiny. Make it everything it can be because there are no second takes. Furthermore forget your past as there are no such thing as failures. Everything is a success as it’s a successive step towards who you want to be. Believe you me regardless of how bad you have it success breeds success and small steps quickly turn into giant leaps.

Have an awesome day and if you can relate to this leave a comment or subscribe to our feed or share this with the social media bookmarks below.

Business Advice

I love my mom and I hope you do as well. Today is a special day to honor and spend time with the special woman in our lives who not only brought us into this world; but also was responsible for introducing us to so many great things in it.

Here are my Top 5 Reasons to Celebrate Mother’s Day.

1) She’s your mom you only have one and she loves you.

2) Let me restate that she’s your mom; without her you’d never of had an introduction into this world.

3) Unconditional love is something rare and special and your mother is an endless source.

4) Life is about relationships at the end of the day; why not let your biggest supporter and best friend know they matter to you?

5) Great way to build more memorable experiences together to be remembered forever. You can do things any day but anything on Mother’s Day is just that much extra special.

There you have it; those are my top 5 reasons to go all out for Mother’s Day. I wish all mother’s an absolutely wonderful day.

What I am Doing

Whether your blog sells something or not you still always have an objective of turning a first time reader into an interested subscriber. If that’s not even remotely your subconscious goal then you’d might as well just write your thoughts on a pad of paper or in note pad and save the trouble of publishing them.

I found the image in the link below. They have a plethora of RSS Feed Buttons. Arguably the best I’ve seen in one place online.

60 Great RSS Icons for Your Blog

RSS Subscription buttons play a large role in the number of subscribers you have. The easier and more visible the ability to subscribe; the higher the likely hood of any one visitor subscribing.  It should go without saying that you have to write stuff worth reading and be someone others think are worth listening to. Once that’s out of the way make it as easy as possible.

Since this blog is a side project which I basically just do for fun / place to ramble / rant I never really spent much time playing with it. Previously I had a tiny button in the top left. Props to those of you who found it and subscribe; it sure was well hidden. I’m sure many of you noticed I now have a large cup of java with the feed simple in it; hopefully this will make it easier and remind people that if they like it they can always subscribe in their favorite reader.

Spice up your blog today; try another rss feed icon and put it in a prominent place; converting should never be a difficult task for a visitor.

Blogging