Many of us go out and buy some of the best software and hardware tools available. We read about some tool that could easily DOUBLE our business, or TRIPLE our productivity, so we wisely purchase it.
Many of us realize that we lack certain skills in critical areas of our businesses, so we register for online classes.
Many of us realize that we don’t really know how to use those whiz-bang pieces of hardware or software mentioned above, so we track down and register for in-depth tutorials.
Then we do the DUMBEST thing… we never go through the training. We never learn to use those tools that could easily make our lives easier, and our businesses much more profitable.
We rationalize that “we don’t have the time!”
This is one of two areas that has contributed the most to the growth of my productivity… and to my bottom line recently. I’ve started actually “making the time” to go through those tutorials and really learn to use the software or hardware tools that I have. I’ve actually made the time to go through several tutorials on how to develop critical skills that I need.
As an aside, I’ve also “made time” for more fitness, which is also essential to my long-term productivity.
How does a busy businessperson do this?
You simply put it right on your schedule… and then you do it. You allocate blocks of time for it, and then you don’t “find” something more important.
I spent 20 years and 10 months in the U.S. Air Force. During that time I spent many, many WEEKS sitting at a desk or computer, actually learning how to use a piece of equipment, or learning to do some process. I often wondered if that was the best use of my time, but I wasn’t given a choice! So, I cheerfully completed the training.
I not only learned to use my equipment, but I had to then take “practical exams” to prove that I knew how to do it.
Major corporations, governmental agencies, universities, etc, ALL put their personnel through extensive training to make sure that they actually know how to use the equipment and do the processes that are a part of their jobs.
This training is often VERY expensive.
Many of these corporations consult with major think tanks, and expensive consultants, in looking for ways to improve productivity… and their bottom lines. It’s rare that they are advised to cut training.
Many of us online entrepreneurs have never run our own businesses before, and for some reason don’t fully appreciate the value of properly training our employees (or ourselves). So, we flounder for days, weeks, then months! We operate at a fraction of our potential productivity because we never really learn to use the tools at our disposal.
Consider… if setting aside an hour a day for a week, to actually learn to use the tools that you already use every day more efficiently, would increase your productivity by 20 percent, would it be worth it?
To me, the answer is a resounding yes. Over the next year the return-on-investment would be huge.
When you consider the amount of time many of us spend on time-wasters (we all know what they are), we have to acknowledge that we really can fit proper training into our schedules. That’s just a matter of discipline.
There IS a reason big businesses and governmental agencies set aside training days, or even training weeks! Perhaps we should take our cues from them.
Just food for thought!
Oh – earlier, I said that going through the training was one of two ways that I’ve experienced the most growth in productivity. The other one was that I learned to outsource and delegate more. I learned to focus on those chores that are the highest and best use of my time, and to get someone else to do the rest. Like many, I’m still working on that one, but that’s the topic of another article anyway.
Commit to actually learning to use your equipment today.
Willie Crawford operates his own online businesses, brokers joint ventures, teaches online and offline entrepreneurs, and consults with numerous commercial and non-profit corporations. One of Willie’s favorite tools, used for project collaboration is called BaseCamp. It’s at http://timic.org/BaseCamp
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources
A False Economy I NO LONGER Practice Do You?
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A False Economy I NO LONGER Practice Do You?
Although I have been involved with Twitter from shortly after it’s launch there is so much to learn. People come up with different ways to use Twitter to market and develop a community of people and this is one great area of Twitter to follow. The other area of Twitter that is equally as great is all the plugins and hacks that are developed to make the entire Twitter experience more and more unique.
I want to list a number of WordPress Twitter Plugins that you should know about for your personal Twitter experience.
Tweet Meme
You are possibly familiar with the little graphic that shows the number of tweets a blog post has and then you see a green button under that number that says retweet. This is the Tweet Meme plugin for WordPress and it makes it easy for your visitors to tweet your blog to their Twitter feed.
Tweetbacks
With the explosion of blogging and Twitter this WordPress plugin will import Tweets about your post as comments. You can display the tweetbacks nested in other comments on your blog or display them separately. The more comments you have on your site the better ranking your page can get in Google since it shows activity and value.
Twitter Tools
Twitter Tools is a plugin that creates a complete integration between your WordPress blog and your Twitter account. Twitter Tools integrates with Twitter by giving you the following functionality:
- Archive your Twitter tweets (downloaded every 10 minutes)
- Create a blog post from each of your tweets
- Create a daily or weekly digest post of your tweets
- Create a tweet on Twitter whenever you post in your blog, with a link to the blog post
- Post a tweet from your sidebar
- Post a tweet from the WP Admin screens
- Pass your tweets along to another service (via API hook)
Twit this
Place some simple code on your site to create a graphic or a text link that people can click to post a Tweet to their Twitter account.
Twitt twoo
Twitt-Twoo is a simple little plugin that will allow you to update your Twitter status right from your blog’s sidebar. AJAX takes cares of the hard work, and means that your page doesn’t even have to reload, allowing for quick and easy status updates. Displays your latest Twitter status, and when it was last updated.
Twitter Updater
The Twitter Updater automatically sends a Twitter status update to your Twitter account when you create, publish, or edit your WordPress post. You can specify the text for the updates, and also have the option to turn the auto update on/off for the different post actions in the admin panel.
Twittar WordPress Plugin
This WordPress plugin will try to load the twitter avatar of the person leaving a comment on a blog post. It will try to match the email address in the comment to the Twitter account. If this cannot be done it will attempt to use the Gravatar. There are a number of other style settings you can use for customization.
Read more great articles at Bill Wynne’s blog. Get useful ebooks and other gifts for free. Bill has been a successful internet marketer for over a decade. Read articles on Add Comments to Blog and Online Article Marketing
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources
7 WordPress Twitter Plugins to Spice up Your Blog
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7 WordPress Twitter Plugins to Spice up Your Blog
If you have a blog, you have an updates feed, most likely in the flavor of RSS feed, but quite possible in Atom feed. This is the file that’s linked to the weird-looking orange button you see on many frequently updated websites, such as blogs. These tips apply to both types of feeds.
Your feed’s job is to talk to other machines about your site on your behalf. Those bot to bot conversations increase your traffic and help more people see your site, either directly through feed reader subscriptions and listings, or indirectly by helping your search rankings. Do at least these basics to take care of your feed.
- No one loves RSS, okay? I never actually liked it much, but I always understood that it was necessary to grow my site. Stop trying to hug it, and start having a basic understanding of how it helps your business.
- If you don’t have a site newsletter, you can use RSS to make your blog posts into email newsletters, then put the email subscription box at the top right of your site, or otherwise unobtrusively remind people to subscribe. Aweber will create both the newsletter and the web form for you automatically.
- About once a week, make sure your feed is validating. Sometimes all it takes is a rarely used character in the title to break your feed. FeedValidator.org will help you with that for free.
- Submit your feed to the top RSS search engines and directories. There aren’t hundreds of them as there once were, but for the good ones remaining, like Syndic8, the links can’t hurt you.
- RSS is what helps your site speak to social media sites automatically, but what if you aren’t sure what is helping and how often? Try FeedBurner. It’s my opinion that the service has been on the decline since Google took it over a year ago, but before you judge by that, take into account the height it was at when the fall began.
It’s still does a pretty decent job of tracking your traffic, and there’s no need to direct ALL your traffic through FeedBurner if you don’t want to, just use it to track sites that you give permission to repurpose your feed, like Twitter and Facebook.
- Google Reader. Yes, that’s the whole tip. Of the minority of people who use a Feed Reader to follow blogs rather than email, Google Reader is the top choice. Stick the button on your site, glance over your headlines in Google Reader now and again. Wouldn’t hurt you to share some items over there too.
- Should you use full-feeds or partial-feeds? It’s a controversial issue. I won’t go into as much detail about how my private findings differ wildly from conventional wisdom, just suffice it to say this. My solution with new sites is to offer both, and let readers choose when they come to your site, and allow the short feed to be syndicated by anyone, with a link at the bottom of each short feed post letting readers know you offer full text as well.
Learning about RSS may not be as big a deal as it once was, but don’t forget that your site’s feed is instrumental in helping your site grow.
Tinu helps small businesses expand into new markets online via the power of their websites. if you need help getting online visitors to result in offline profits, come to Free Traffic Tips for more help and a free consultation.
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources
7 RSS Traffic Tips for Small Business Owners
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7 RSS Traffic Tips for Small Business Owners