This is my second post in the Ultimate Blogging Challenge for January – 31 blog posts throughout the month.

In keeping with my previous post, (see here) I’m breaking the task down into smaller, more manageable chunks. I’ve got a list of topics and some blog titles that I want to cover during the course of the month – but nothing is set in stone, I’ve got built-in flexibility, and I need it.

Obviously, the idea is to post one post a day, but I’ve fallen behind as it’s already the 4th Jan and this is only my second post. Stuff happens that we don’t or can’t plan for and sometimes schedules are forced off track. No biggie. Life happens!

Now, I AM committed to this challenge and I know I will complete it, but falling behind, although just a little, could may well put some people off from seeing it through, but not me.  I know how hard a job this could be if I let a few days go by without posting.  I know it is possible to research, write, edit and upload a few blog posts in one day, but that sounds like too much hard work for me – it’s like leaving the weeding for weeks only to be faced with a mammoth task later on.

I have associated enough pain with leaving stuff till the last minute to not fall into that trap. Yes, I might slip up now and then, but I’ve made the decision to get the job done, so I’ll get myself back on track and carry on.

It’s a useful strategy for motivating yourself towards any goal you are trying to achieve – ask yourself how much pain, discomfort and disappointment will you feel if you don’t succeed. Sometimes focusing on the pain of failure is a more powerful motivator than imagining the pleasure of getting to your goal.

So, how are you keeping yourself on track and motivated?

Some people love gardening. It seems that they’re always out there, lightly tilling the soil, picking up the odd weed, trimming the lawn, clipping the dead heads. Gardening for them is a passion, they love it and what’s more, the more they work at it the easier it gets. Given time, a gardener can even transform any unloved, overgrown, weedy patch into a place of beauty, enjoyment and relaxation.

I don’t much like gardening. I cut the lawn when it really needs it – and boy, what a job; the grass is usually so long it takes umpteen empties of the grass box.

When we weed, it’s a major task, involving back-breaking removal of huge clumps of weeds.  We block out a few days in the diary to carry out the task and we’re exhausted and sore by the end of it.

Weeding and mowing the lawn are just two gardening tasks we manage to make so difficult for ourselves – there are others too, but I reckon you get the picture.

It’s a vicious circle: I hate gardening, so I leave it until the jobs are massive and painful – therefore I hate gardening.

Of course, I should do little and often. Pop out every day or so; nip a few weeds, a few dead heads, mow the lawn regularly so I just get one grass box full.

It’s exactly the same for your business – in fact it’s the same for any change (and maintenance program) you want to effect for any part of your life.

Today is January 2nd, a traditional time for people to focus on change and at this time of year we call them New Year’s Resolutions.

Have you made any? Are any of them biggies? I mean, huge tasks that you’re really not looking forward to, or are just so big that the thought of even starting them scares you?

If they are, then you’re looking at your desired changes the way I look at weeding – and we’re both wrong.

Change can be easy, no matter how large the challenge. We simply need to work at it in smaller chunks, a bit at a time, on a regular and consistent basis.

Be an expert gardener for your business, for your life. Love your life and your business and tend to them regularly – you’ll look upon change, no matter how big, as a welcome challenge because no task will be overwhelming.

Invest in “little and often” and you’ll enjoy more success and discover more time to enjoy both your business and your life.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got your routines. I’m the first up in our family: I go downstairs, put the kettle on, go into the office, turn the PCs on, go make a cup of tea and take it to my wife in bed.

When we’ve got the breakfast and the school run over I’m back in the office. I check email, new sales and normally fire up Tweetdeck too to have in the background.

Throughout the course of the day I’ll go to PayPal also, and AWeber and maybe Facebook, log into a few of my blogs, Amazon, eBay, check a few forums… well, you get the picture.

Nearly all of the sites I visit regularly require me to input my login credentials.  I used to have a book that I stored them all in, but it was getting messy and confusing, especially after altering email addresses and passwords. Even when it did work, it took time to find the right page and input the right password.  When you consider the amount of sites that needed that little book it was a fair chunk of time I spent inputting the data. I knew I needed a better system, but it was one of those things I was putting off.

Then one day, disaster.

ALL of our blogs got hijacked. Overnight, ALL of them were flagged by Google as ‘possible attack sites’. Someone had somehow buried a redirect script in the wordpress system files and it took days to sort it out.

The financial impact both in terms of sales and time lost may not have been great, but the thought that this could happen so easily, so quickly was quite disturbing.

What was the cause? I narrowed it down to my own PC being the weak link. Although I have antivirus protection I had somehow installed a piece of malware that monitored the small program I used to use for uploading files to our sites. They had stolen all my login credentials for our WordPress sites.

I wasn’t sure if it was a keylogger or if it just attacked this one FTP program, but once I’d cleared my PC of malware and viruses (not an insignificant task), changed all my passords and usernames, I set to work in preventing it from happening again. (Oh yeah, and I had to ask Google to review all of our sites – what a pain!)

Anyway, onto the preventative solution.  First on the list was a product by Craig Desorcy called Blog Lockdown – an invaluable resource in helping anyone secure their WordPress blogs.  With Craig’s advice I managed to secure my FTP work and install cyberlocks on our blogs. If I’d implemented the steps outlined in Blog Lock Down BEFORE I got attacked I would have saved myself a lot of grief and down time.  Craig also recommended another security tool called Roboform – and this has been a revelation.

Roboform, in its simplest form, is a password manager, but to me it’s so much more. Not only will it encrypt and store all your passwords and usernames, it also acts as a great bookmark organiser.  Once I’ve entered my password into RoboForm I never have to enter another username or password for the myriad of sites I log into every day. (Roboform’s password is also entered via a virtual keyboard – you just use your mouse so any keylogging malware would never be able to hack it.)

Roboform will also complete forms at the click of a button and can safely store personal details such as address, telephone numbers, bank details and credit card numbers.  I love it when faced with a huge online form that I can simply click one button and all the fields are automatically completed – safe, secure and quick!

If you do any financial transactions online; Amazon, Play, grocery shopping, then Roboform is not a luxury but an absolute MUST.

I collect little gadgets and useful bits of software all the time – through a process of natural selection most of them lie unused, forgotten about on my hard drive, but Roboform is just part and parcel of my daily routine. After the breakfast, school run and a cup of tea, switching on RoboForm is always the next task.

You can try Roboform for free – it comes with my highest of recommendations and it’s well worth giving it a go

Have you ever seen a product that immediately makes you think,

“Wow! That’s brilliant. I wish I’d thought of that.” ?

I saw one of those the other day and I’d like to introduce it to you now.  Let me start by asking you a question:

Do you remember being a teenager?

For some, that’s harder than it is for others I know, but I can still recall that regular, awkward sidling up to my dad, (I’d NEVER ask my mum!) and pleading,

“Dad, have you got £10 so I can go to the movies?”

Now, the sum and currency may be different for you and the reason may have been for the latest gadget or newest CD, but some kind of variation to that conversation still happens in most every home today – does it still happen in yours, except maybe now you’re the mum or the dad?

Well, there’s a new product out that could well put an end to that conversation – at least in your household.

Take a look at the video on this page

and see how TeenCashMachine could save you a bunch of cash AND teach your kids a fantastic work ethic at the same time.

Photo – youngthousands

Most savvy business people will limit their use of Twitter, Facebook and forum posting etc to the minimum time possible to get the maximum return.

It takes focus and discipline to involve yourself in social networking just enough so you get the balance right between being businesslike and being suitably sociable.

I find it’s a skill that requires practice. Who do you network with? How often do you chat? When do you post links? How long do you stay on?

But, no matter how chatty and sociable I may get, I always remember the reason I set up my Twitter and Facebook accounts – to help my business.

When I used to live in the city, I attended a number of real life, face-to-face networking events.  It was interesting to see the folk that could effectively network, ‘working’ the room, asking questions, listening, seeing how they could help others, making connections.

It was just as fascinating to me to watch the people who couldn’t network, the ‘notworkers’ as I called them. If they weren’t just sitting on their own, they would be talking to the same one or two folk that they talked to last week, taking the opportunity to tell them how great/bad their life was.

Networking events for the ‘notworkers’ were a fantastic opportunity to catch up, off load and get a free breakfast – a chance to get away from work. It’s surprising to think that many were indeed self-employed, I wonder if they still are?

Social networking is no different.  Whilst it might be great to have a few minutes at a virtual watercooler it is just as important not to lose sight of the reason you joined them – the clue’s in the title, networking, not Notworking.

Our daughter always shone in her primary school.  We encouraged her to fit in… by standing out.  She was popular enough not to be bullied or ridiculed when excelling at subjects, particularly the arts, music and drama.  Her confidence soared and she loved school.

Last summer she started secondary school and we’ve noticed a change.  With the increased peer pressure she now has an overwhelming desire to blend in, to fit in, not by standing out but by doing as the others do. As a result she’s not particularly excelling at any subject and she enjoys going to school less and less.

She’s 12. She is learning and what she is going through is all part of growing up.  We can only encourage her to rekindle that enthusiasm and once more be that confident young girl we all know she can be.

This is a familiar story for many folk.  Society tells us we must fit in. Don’t rock the boat. Bide your time, quietly and without a fuss and everything will be OK.

When employers are recruiting staff, as well as having the right qualifications, qualities and experience, they want the people they hire to ‘fit in’ – nothing worse than a new face upsetting a stable apple cart.

If you’re a prospective employee there is a desire to fit in too, but if you have ambition then there’s also an element of not wanting to blend in too much.  You’d like to get noticed, admired for your unique qualities and be utilized and rewarded accordingly.

As a business owner though you should always be looking to stand out.  You should be desperate to shout from the rooftops about your business.  Getting noticed is the name of the game.  Fitting in and being just like the other businesses in your market is a recipe for disaster.

Strive for uniqueness. Dare to be different, expand your comfort zones and enjoy the spoils of not being just one of the crowd.

Picture by c.a.muller

It seems that everywhere you turn, no matter what your endeavour, there’s always someone with a bit of ‘free’ advice for you.

Wondering the best route to take to get to your aunt Mary’s house? There’ll be a neighbour or friend who went that way back in ’84 and they’ll have some strong opinions as to which roads to avoid and where to eat along the way.

Considering what DVD to rent for a family movie? Just pop online and check out the latest reviews – folk aren’t backward in coming forward on the internet.

Not sure what web hosting company to use, what WordPress theme to choose, whether to create your own products, which affiliate products you should promote? There’s a ton of questions you’re forced to ask yourself if you want to create a business online and there are thousands more opinions as to the answers.

A couple of days ago, a very prominent Internet Marketer (John Reese) declared that he was shutting down his Twitter account and, in effect, abandoning his 25 THOUSAND followers.

It was John’s decision. He made the call in the interest of his own business. He said that it sucked too much of his time and that Twitter was clogged up.

Whatever his reasons and whether or not you agree with his decision we all have to respect that it was HIS decision.

Where, I believe, John boo-booed was in the way that he suggested that closing your Twitter account was the only sensible strategy to employ. Now, he didn’t come right out and say this but because of his prominence in the internet marketing world, that’s the message that came across.

So, should you listen to John Reese?

Should you close your Twitter account?

Do you want my opinion?

I haven’t a clue!

Or, more specifically, how could I possibly comment as to whether you should shut your Twitter account, or open up five more, or concentrate on Facebook advertising, or put your efforts into PPC. I don’t know your business – that’s your job.

John’s job is to run HIS business. In his opinion, not being on Twitter is the right choice.

The key is this…

Everything you read about business, whether it’s online or from a good old trusty real-life book, it largely opinion. Yes, there are some proven strategies, but even they only hold true if a bunch of circumstance prevail.

My advice, which you’re free to ignore, is never blindly follow anyone’s advice! Always assess it against YOUR business, YOUR circumstances, YOUR resources. After all, it is YOUR business, not mine nor John Reese’s.

Now, hand me that 1982 road map and let me find the best way to dear old Aunty Mary’s house.

Peter

Yes, a teleprompter.  You know what one of those is, right?  The thing that scrolls the script magically in front of the camera lens so you can read it while looking straight at your audience. It makes making videos, especially instructional videos, so much easier. Some people know it as an autocue.

Peter

A very quick post on the subject of Twitter again.

If you are plagued by a DM box overflowing with useless auto DMs from folk who can’t grasp how to use Twitter effectively, here are a couple of options for you to consider.

DMWhacker and SocialOomph (formally Tweetlater)

Both tools will rid your DM box of all incoming or outgoing messages with DMWhacker offering a few more options to discriminate which DMs it gets rid of.

DMWhacker will delete the little blighters in a flash (well, a few seconds anyway) It just sits on your bookmark bar and is there whenever you need it.

Go here:  The DM Whacker site

There’s full instructions there but they’re very simple to follow, look:

Drag the bookmarklet: ‘DM Whacker’ onto your bookmark bar and navigate to your DM page. Click the new bookmark and a menu appears in the Twitter sidebar. Choose your options and zap them! Careful though, there’s no recycle bin, once they’re gone, they’re gone!

SocialOomph requires that you sign up for an account (just the free version will do for deleting all of your DMs)  Once logged in you can do a host of things regarding DMs. As this is the tool that most people use to send automated DMs (they’re not ALWAYS useless, the auto DM function can be VERY useful) you can also opt out of receiving auto DMs that are sent from SocialOomph if you wish.

However, we’re just dealing with deleting the things.  You’ll need to go to the DM menu and choose ‘Purge DMs’.  Select your account and time frame and click ‘Purge’.  It takes a bit longer than DMWhacker but it is just as permanent – once deleted there’s no going back.

Go here for SocialOomph

If I was to choose one, for the basic job of deleting ALL of my Twitter direct messages, it would have to be DMWhacker – it’s quick, integrates easily with the Twitter web interface and it doesn’t ask for your Twitter login credentials.

Enjoy your clutter-free DM box.

Peter

EDIT: Did you know that when you delete a DM that’s been sent to you that it’s also removed from the senders inbox too.  Similarly, deleting your sent items will remove them from your recipients’ inboxes. Weird huh, and it explains the curious mystery of the disappearing DMs!

There are a lot of things about Twitter that can have a fantastic, positive impact on your business.  The main one that most people focus on is getting hundreds and thousands of followers so your communications can be seen by as many people as possible.

The most common strategy for building up your follower numbers is to follow as many people as you can who meet particular criteria.

This means that your Twitter stream is jam packed with folk you haven’t had time to connect with or are just there because you want to talk TO them, not WITH them.    Viewing these thousands of tweets efficiently on the standard Twitter interface is impossible, but if you use Tweetdeck then you can manage it very well.

I made this short video to inform you of just some of the excellent features of Tweetdeck – it can do a lot more, I might just have to do another video to explain them.

In the meantime, download it here: Tweetdeck

Have fun.

Peter

P.S.  And you can follow me on Twitter too –> Peter on Twitter