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.

Anyway, here it is, in all its heath-robinson, over-engineered glory.

Click on it to see the bigger picture.

I’ve got a bunch of videos that I’ve been meaning to make but one of the reasons I’ve not done them is that I’ve yet to come up with a satisfactory solution to either remembering what I want to say or reading a script without looking at notes.  I’ve just got to practice using it so it doesn’t sound like I’m reading from a script – probably the hardest part of the whole project.

If you want to know how it works, I’ve mocked up a diagram that explains it.  It’s rather clever, mainly because it’s so simple.  In the case of a teleprompter it’s true to say, it’s all done with mirrors.

Once again, click to enlarge.

So, what d’ya think?

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

When you’re planning for your business it is useful is start with your goal in mind and work backwards. What I mean by that is to decide what you want to achieve, particularly financially and ‘retrace’ the steps necessary to achieve your goal.

One tool that I’ve used to this aim is this spreadsheet. It’s based on very simple maths and a model that Jay Abraham introduced to me some 15 years ago. It’s all about multiplying your profits which is a nice subject matter, don’t you think?

Although this spreadsheet illustration rather simplifies the process it clarifies some basic yet important principles.  I read Jim Connolly’s blog a couple of months ago and he reminded me that you should also factor in customer attrition as retaining your hard-found paying customers is arguably the fourth way to grow your business.

You can create your own projected figures for your business using the online spreadsheet I’ve provided and you can see it here

As this is my first post on this blog I feel I should do the polite thing and welcome you to my little space on the Internet and thank you for visiting. So…

Hi and welcome to my blog!

There you go, I’ve done it. Now, let’s get down to business.

The main purpose of this site is as a resource to help you learn how to create an online business. Maybe you’ve got an offline business already, or maybe you’ve never been self-employed before, it doesn’t much matter. Whatever your experience, or lack of, there’ll be stuff on here that will help you progress.

I’ve got a thirst for knowledge, particularly business knowledge and for the past couple of years I’ve been soaking up everything to do with creating an online business. I want to pass on what I’ve been discovering and with my Business Adviser head on I’ll be reviewing lots of products, e-books, software, systems, e-courses, websites etc and telling you what I think is cool and what’s not so cool.

If you’d checked out my intro video up there on the right you’ll know that my background is in business advice, but this online game is quite a different ball of wax.  There are guys out there that have been at this since the inception of the Internet and have made a heck of a lot more money than me. The ‘rules’ of how to make money on the Internet are also changing seemingly day by day.

So, my point is this: I’m not always going to be right and there are folk that know a lot more than me about marketing your business online. What you’ll get from me will be my honest opinions and a real desire to see your business flourish into the tool that will give you the life you want.

Stick your name and email address into the form and let’s keep in touch. I’ve no free gift; I’m just offering you a hand to help build your business.

To your success

Peter Bestel

P.S.  If you haven’t checked out the video up on the right there, then I suggest you do. It’s got me using my ever-so-posh telephone voice and some funky music too! It also explains why I’m seen wearing a hat so often!