How To Attract Amazingly Positive People

September 13, 2008

Wouldn’t your life be so much easier, if you were able to attract only amazingly positive people into it? I know mine would. And I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by positive people. But the odd negative one seems to be able to creep in and spread bad feeling in a viral way.

Just One Or Two Negative People Can Infect A Hundred Positive People

And I guess that on the Internet, it’s even easier for them to do so. I get some wonderful, positive people visiting this blog. But I’ve also had my share of stalkers, idiots and mean spirited visitors. And the trouble is, if you let them - those types are like termites, devouring any positive feelings. It’s the same in business - just one or two negative folk can bleed the life out of an entire workforce.

I’ve been wondering how to close the lid on these assholes for a long time and shut them out completely. But one or two always seem to creep in, no matter how desperately I tried to keep them out. And finally, it dawned on me - I’ve actually been inviting those negative folk in.

At First I Thought The People We Attract Was A Numbers Game

At first I thought it was a numbers game. After all, no matter where I’ve worked, there’s always been the odd idiot, or venemous person. And I’ve noticed some really mean commenters on other blogs too. Heather of Dooce.com gets some real assholes in her comments section, but she gets hundreds of comments on each post she writes, so I guess it’s just a small percentage. Trouble is, among that small percentage she seems to have some real hardcore nuts, because recently, she she received a death threat.

Maybe We’re Asking For These Idiots To Show Up In Our Lives

I noticed that Rachel Elnaugh also seems to get some real idiots on her blog. Just reading some of their comments makes me wish I could press the delete button on them myself. But Rachel mentioned that she’s reading “Ask And It Is Given” by Esther and Jerry Hicks and although she’s getting some great results, she still gets a little angry when people piss her off.

Well, I remembered that Evelyn Lim also recommend Esther and Jerry’s work, so I went out and bought the book. And after reading a few pages, I realised that we may well be attracting these losers into our lives.

The book says that we attract what we think about most, whether we want it, or not. And trouble is, when we’re being persecuted by idiots or losers, we’re usually saying to ourselves, “I wish these negative people would disappear”, or something like that, but we’re actually focusing our thoughts on negative people. So we’re inviting more of them into our world.

What we should be doing is focusing on the positive people and inviting more in. For example, when positive people visit my blog, I should be thinking - that person is great, I’m glad they gave their opinion on that post. And I want more positive people to visit my blog.
At the same time - we should ignore the idiots. Just put them in the spam folder, where they belong.

Have you accidentally invited negative people into your life before? Did you find a way to get rid of them? What do you do to attract amazingly positive people into your life?

Image Credit: Brandi Sims

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Planning | 28 Comments

Blogging Without A Business 3 - The Practical Stuff

September 10, 2008

This is part of a series of articles on setting up a business blog, before you actually have a business. You can check out part 1 here:The Power Of Blogging For Business Without A Business. And part 2 here: Blogging Without A Business - The Fringe Benefits.

1) The first thing you will need for your blog is a domain name - eg. http://www.cathlawson.com
Many hosting companies will provide a free domain name.

2) Next, you need someone to host your blog - this will be your parking space on the Internet.
Check out the following popular hosting services:
Bluehost
EventureBiz
Hostgator

You can host your blog for free on Blogger instead, but if you intend to start a business later on, I highly recommend getting your own domain and host. It’s cheap and it looks far more professional.

3) If you would like a professionally designed blog, check out Men With Pens (they designed this
blog). And if you don’t want to fork out for a professional design yet, there’s hundreds of
free wordpress themes available.

4) Once you’re all set up, there’s heaps of widgets, plugins and blogging stuff you need to know.
And Barbara at Blogging Without A Blog and Lorelle on Wordpress have heaps of wonderful
blogging resources for you to explore.

5) Blogging isn’t easy - it’s a total different way of writing than what you see in other media. I
struggled to get it right for a long time. To avoid making some of the mistakes I made, I
recommend reading: The Secret To Writing A Successful And Outstanding Blog by Liz Strauss. And it’s also worth subscribing to her excellent blog: Successful Blog.
If you already have a blog, what other practical advice would you give to anyone who is looking to start one? If you’re considering starting a blog yourself, do you have any questions?

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Marketing, Planning | 13 Comments

Blogging Without A Business 2 - The Fringe Benefits

September 3, 2008

I could talk all day about the benefits of blogging if you have a business. But there’s also some wonderful fringe benefits you receive on a personal level too. And if you’re going to start blogging before you start a business, you might want to know about these.

Amazing People

Blogging enables you to build a community of amazing people. And this is a great benefit as you get to know people who are also blogging with future plans to build a business. This also gives you many networking opportunities. Plus, you’re surrounding yourself with positive people, which has huge benefits.

Enhanced Learning

If you’re blogging on a topic you’re passionate about for a year or two before you start your business, you’ll get to learn even more about your topic. You’ll also get to know more about your potential customers, from the comments section and through visiting their own blogs. And from the search strings that people use to find you on the search engines.

Plus, if you’re visiting the blogs of your community members, you’ll learn a whole heap of other useful stuff too. And all this learning will help you, when it’s time to start your business.

Knowing Yourself And What You Want

I’ve heard a lot of people say they’ve got to know themselves more since they began blogging. And they’ve changed because of this. That certainly applies to me too. In fact, blogging has helped me make some life changing decisions. For instance, it helped me liquidate a business that wasn’t right for me, so I could concentrate on the things I really want to do.

And it made me realise that it’s important to live the life you want now, instead of working 80 hours a week to enjoy a life that may never come.

What fringe benefits have you received since you began blogging? And if you’re thinking of beginning a blog before you start a business, do you have any questions you’d like to ask?

This is a series of posts on blogging for business. You can read part 1 here: The Power Of Blogging For Business Without A Business
And you can subscribe to this blog and make sure you don’t miss the rest of the series by clicking here.

Image Credit: Joe Shlabotnik

Related Reading

The Power of Blogging For Business Without A Business
Blog Marketing: Do You Make These Commenting Cock Ups?

What Is Your Responsibility As A Writer?
The Recipe: 26 Practical Resources For Starting An Online Business
47 Brilliant Blog Marketing Resources

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Marketing, Planning | 32 Comments

The Dirty Word In The Blogosphere

August 22, 2008

On my travels through the blogosphere, I’ve noticed a dirty word that keeps cropping up. And it’s not the F word - it’s money.

It seems to be everywhere I go. The topics vary but money and blogging always seem to be connected in some way. Like in these articles:
“How Can I Make Money From Blogging?”,
I Don’t Read Blogs With Too Many Ads/Monetized Too Soon,
Advertising Alternatives For Bloggers,
How Top Bloggers Earn Money,
Use A Blog As A Powerful Marketing Tool.

And when it comes to money, there seems to be many different types of blogger, including these ones:

1) The Blog Whores: The ones that want to make a heap of cash and don’t care what they write.

2) The Creative Bloggers: The ones that love writing and hope to monetize their blogs eventually.

3) The Brand Bloggers: The ones who are aiming to use their blog to promote a product or service eventually.

4) The Diary Bloggers: The ones who just blog for fun, or blog about their daily lives.

5) The Savvy Bloggers: The ones who are already making money through their blogs.

6) The Anxious Bloggers: The ones who would like to make money from their blog but don’t want to admit it, incase it drives their readers away.

7) The Dumb Bloggers: The ones who are disgusted at the idea that anyone would want to make money from their blog.

If you were working 20 hours a week - you’d expect some sort of payment or reward eventually. You’d deserve it - so why should blogging be different? Did you ever hear anyone say, “I love Oprah, but I’m not going to watch her program anymore because she gets paid for working?”

Lets face it, if you have no plans for your blog, other than for other people to read what you’ve written, then you’ve got to have one huge ego.

And, although you’re unlikely to generate much money, or publicity from blogging in your first year or two, it can certainly pay off for those who are persistent, including these bloggers, who were featured on business week.

What do you think? I know people don’t want to share their plans on the Internet. But do you hope to use your blog to make money eventually - either directly or indirectly. Or do you think it’s a terrible sin?

Image Credit: Liewcf.

Are You Blogging Like A Barbie Doll
Will You Become A Corporate Blog Whore
Blog Marketing - Do You Make These Commenting Cock Ups?
The Blogging Advice That Kept Me Up All Night

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Planning, Running a Business | 44 Comments

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