Social Media Leprosy and Other Problems

September 18, 2008

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Are you worried that you might be suffering from Social Media Leprosy, or some other unthinkable disease? Don’t worry, I’ve found the solutions to your problems:

Social Media Leprosy: Do you have social media leprosy? Are all your contacts avoiding you like the plague? It could be that you’ve picked up bad social media habits, by following the wrong teacher. This happens a lot. A short while ago, I stopped reading a blog I’d been enjoying, because the blogger was inflicting huge amounts of social media spam on me.

Then a couple of days ago, it occurred to me that they may not even know they’re doing something wrong - they’ve just learned from the wrong person, so I decided to give them another chance. To discover whether you’re suffering from Social Media Leprosy, check out this post by Vincent Wright.

Frozen Balls Disease: Do you have a really great idea for a business, or some other project? Are you afraid to get it off the ground because you fear you’ll become that “F” word that we don’t mention round here? If so, take a look at Yaro Starak’s explanation on how he overcame frozen balls disease and launched a membership site.

Someday Syndrome: Are you doing what you really want to do with your life? Or do you keep putting things off until “someday”. Do you worry that you might have left it too late and your ship may never come in. If so, check out this workshop and start living the life of your dreams now.

Scriptorial Constipation: If your writing sucks, don’t worry, I’ve found a couple of cures. First off, Ellen Wilson explains how cleaning the toilet will make you a better writer. And if that thought leaves you feeling all bunged up, Graham Strong shares heaps of ideas for unblocking yourself and getting those words onto the screen.

Are you suffering from any of these diseases, or other problems we’ve not mentioned here? Or can you suggest a cure for any other unimagineable disease?

Image Credits

Social Media Spam by Phil Hawksworth
Frozen Balls Disease by House of Sims
Someday My Ship Will Come In by Savannah Grandfather
Writers Block by Miss Pupik

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Inspiration and Motivation, Mistakes | 21 Comments

Why You’re Not Making Lots Of Money

September 17, 2008

Do you have a goal of making lots of money? You’re not alone. When I was using Google’s Keyword Tool before, there’s a ridiculous amount of searches done on making money every single day.

Trouble is, lots of these searchers will never make much money at all. When you’re focusing your attention on making lots of money and nothing else, you’re liable to run into a lot of mousetraps. So how do you identify them and prevent them from snapping shut on your tail?

Mediocrity

The problem: Mediocre ideas are never going to do well. And the reason people keep coming up with these ideas for making lots of money, is because they focus on the money and nothing else. And when one idea doesn’t make them rich within a few weeks, they move onto the next crap money making idea.

If you’ve fallen into this trap, there’s a good chance that you’ve been focusing on a way to make money fast, without thinking about what people might actually want to buy from you.

Solution: Take the time to do some research and find out what people are actually looking for and what will make you stand out from the competition. And once you’ve made a plan, persevere. Don’t expect life changing results over night.

Desperation

Problem: Through desperation, people will type phrases into Google like “making lots of money”, “how to make money fast” and “how to get rich”.

And all the scammers of the day know that desperate people use those search terms. So they dangle a chunk of cheese in front of you, in return for a handful of cash.

The searcher doesn’t make a bean in return, never mind the ridiculous amount of money they’ve been promised. But often, they’ll move from one scam to the next, in their desperation to make lots of money as quickly as possible. And they wind up wasting a small fortune on trashy products that don’t make them a penny.

Solution: Lose the get rich quick mindset and think long term. Is there a special reason why you need to make half a million by next month? Unless you’ve got some seriously massive bills to pay, you probably won’t need it, as you’ll be working too hard on your business to spend money anyway.

Once you stop focusing on making lots of money fast, you’ll find it far easier to come up with a product or service that will provide value to your customers.

Blurred Vision

Problem: If money is your only goal your vision becomes blurred. It’s fine to have financial goals. But at the end of the day, money is just a tool to help you do other things. And your goals are just a number you want to achieve. Eventually, you get bored with these numbers and you’ll need to find something else to focus on, or you’ll never get what you want.

I used to focus on financial goals, because they were the only thing I could think of to aim for. It wasn’t the actual money I wanted - it was the pat on the back I could give myself for reaching my targets.

But focusing on financial goals stopped me from looking at the big picture. And although I achieved some pretty outrageous targets, I didn’t achieve much else. Had I set different goals, I might have had time to go on that relaxing holiday, or go for a massage every week, or spend more time with my children etc. . Instead, I spent all my time working to ensure I achieved the financial targets instead.

Solution: While you do still need to set yourself financial goals, to ensure your business stays on track, don’t limit yourself to these. Set yourself goals that mean something to you. And as well as setting huge long term goals, set small term ones too. What do you want more of in life? Do you want to spend more time with your family, take a world cruise, move into a bigger house, or play golf once a week.

Unrealistic Goals

Some people - especially those who’ve only made money through working for others, set out with unrealistic short term goals. I’ve seen these a lot on the Internet. They’ll begin working part-time and set themselves a ridiculous goal of $1 million turnover in a year, even though they’re investing very little time or money. And these people are setting themselves up for a fall. While some would argue that it’s important to think big, it’s important to think smart at the same time.

Solution: Instead of starting out like this, it’s far better to make a long term, realistic plan stretching 3 to 5 years ahead. Then work out what you need to do to achieve those goals. It’s no good setting yourself a financial target, if you don’t know how many sales you need to make to achieve it. So work all that out first and break it down into weekly or monthly targets so it’s more achievable.

What other mistakes have you seen people make, when they become obsessed with making lots of money? What advice would you give them?

Why not click here to sign up in a reader and make sure you avoid more money making traps.

Image Credits

Internet Scammers: D70Focus
Mount Everest: Rupert Taylor-Price

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Mistakes, Planning | 24 Comments

Do You Take Precautions?

August 29, 2008

Do you take special precautions to ensure that certain aspects of your business and life run smoothly?

In this article, Urban Panther explains why she’s so careful about not letting the gas run too low in her car. She’s really safeguarding herself against potential disaster.

I must admit, I’m pretty careless about letting my gas/petrol run on the orange light but Urban Panther’s reasoning has made me think.

Also, in this post - Kelly at She-Power explains a potentially dangerous position she put herself in, when she helped a stranger. She asks whether we are making ourselves vulnerable by being too kind. Her chilling article kept me up all night. Are we really thinking clearly when we agree to help strangers out, or are we putting ourselves at risk?

I must admit, I often help others without thinking of the potential consequences and this could be risky both online and off.

What precautions do you take to protect your business or life? Are there times when you’ve put yourself at risk, without stopping to think about the potential consequences?

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Mistakes | 33 Comments

Business Referrals: Are You Making This Huge Mistake?

August 28, 2008

Business referrals from a satisfied customer, who has already used your product or service are one of the cheapest and best ways to get new customers.

If you’re like me, you’ll enjoy referring a great business, or freelancer to your friends. Trouble is, lately I’ve referred a few people to businesses I’ve enjoyed dealing with. And would you believe, a lot of those businesses owners didn’t even thank me?

But it wasn’t the fact they didn’t thank me, that bothered me so much. It was the reason why they didn’t thank me.

You see, I’d referred a handful of friends to one business owner I know and trust. And a couple of weeks later, I’d not heard a thing. This surprised me, so I contacted her and mentioned the name of one of the people I’d referred. She confirmed that the person I referred had been in touch and she’d made a sale. But she seemed really surprised to learn that I’d sent this customer to her. I thought about it for a while and then I realised why.

She hadn’t bothered to ask her new customer how she’d heard about her. And to me, that’s like throwing your marketing budget into a deep lake and hoping it will float back up to the surface.

If we don’t ask our customers how they heard about us, how can we possibly know which marketing activities are actually working? And if we don’t know, we could be wasting a huge amount of time and money on things that don’t work at all and not enough on the things that are bringing us the most business.

If you have a business, do you try to find out how your customers how they heard about you? If not, is there some reason why? Depending on the particular type of business - can you think of ways a business owner can find out where their customers are coming from?

Authenticity In Business And Other Lies
Online Networking: Do I Hide From People Like You?

Related Reading On Other Sites

5 Tips For Making The Most Out Of Social Networking Websites
Seth’s Blog: How To Get Referrals

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Marketing, Mistakes | 22 Comments

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