I was at a presentation last night. The speaker cited the now infamous 1953 Yale University goal setting study which conclusively proved that having written goals dramatically increases the likelihood of achieving them. I was familiar with the study and made a note to post it on this blog:
Education Pays
It’s no secret that people who have more education and training generally earn more than those with less, but the advantages don’t stop there. According to Shatkin: “Jobs that require education and training beyond high school are projected to grow significantly faster than jobs that do not. People with higher levels of education and training are less likely to be unemployed, and when they are, they remain unemployed for shorter periods of time. There are always exceptions, but it is clear that more education results in higher earnings and lower rates of unemployment.”
Tech Knowledge is Increasingly Important
Shatkin explains that in all fields, people without job-related technical skills tend to have a more difficult time finding good opportunities because they are competing with others who do have these skills. “Employers hire people who have the skills they need, and people without these abilities won’t get the best jobs. So, whatever your age, consider upgrading your job-related computer and technology skills if they are not up to date and plan to keep them current on your present and future jobs,” he adds.
Ongoing Training is Essential
According to Shatkin, rapid changes in technology have prompted the requirement for people to continue learning throughout their work life. He says: “Jobs are constantly upgraded, and today’s jobs often cannot be handled by people who have only the knowledge and skills that were adequate for workers a few years ago. To remain competitive, you will need to constantly upgrade your technology and other job-related skills. This may include taking formal courses, reading work-related magazines at home, signing up for on-the-job training, or participating in other forms of education.”
Career Planning is the Name of the Game
“Most people spend more time watching TV in a week than they spend on career planning during an entire year. Yet most people will change their jobs many times and make major career changes five to seven times. For this reason, it is important for you to spend time considering your career options and preparing to advance,” he explains.
This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.original post
via tripledogs.com
If you’re a freelance coder, writer, PR strategist, whatever, then you know how much of a pain in the butt it is to keep track of your billable hours. You also know that there are hundreds of solutions out there that will help you try to solve this problem, ranging from free to exorbitant rates.
Well, if you’re on a Mac, you can create you own little home-grown tracking system using built-in software like iCal and the Automator tool. If you’re not familiar with Automator, it’s a simple drag-and-drop interface that lets you create all kinds of interesting workflows for automating dreary tasks like formatting images and much much more (if you’re interested in learning more, I wrote a book on the subject).
So here’s what you do to create a weekly report of billable time.
- Open iCal and create a category called Billable.
- Whenever you do billable work for a client, mark the time spent in iCal and tag it as Billable. I suggest you put the client name and a brief description of what you did in the iCal notes space.
The Ultimate Writer’s Guide to Blogging Part II
You should have an endgame for every post you publish. Whether you want your readers to opt-in to your email list, leave a comment, or click on the buy button, you must determine what you want before writing your copy, then make sure it’s congruent with your Call To Action at the bottom of the post.
Too many writers miss this, believing it’s enough to publish quality copy without asking for the reader to take action at the end. Make the same mistake, and you’ll be throwing away your valuable time with little to show for it.
Use any of the five CTA’s below to grow your blog and maximize your time:
Engage your readers.
It’s a great idea to regularly reinforce the sense of community among your readers. Get them to respond by asking questions and inviting discussion. Make it easy by ending your post with a prompt, then urging readers to respond in the comments or, even better, on their own blogs.
Encourage RSS subscriptions.
Pillar posts, effective link bait, and quality evergreen content (content that is relevant more or less year-round) may take longer to write, but it’s some of the easiest copy to see a return on your time investment. You’ll create the occasional post that stands head and shoulders above the others. This type of pillar content may impress your readers so much that it leaves them longing for more. Include a prompt urging readers to grab your RSS feed at the bottom of these posts, and you can easily capture recurring traffic.
Build your list.
Many writers and newbie bloggers are shy about building their lists. Don’t make this mistake. While RSS subscriptions are nice, they simply can’t come close to an invitation to your market’s inbox.
Sell your products or services.
Whether you’re selling your products or someone else’s, friendly blog posts from a familiar author can make people more receptive to buying. Product reviews, case studies, and new product announcements can help you sell a product or service. Just remember, a blog post isn’t a sales page. Blog readers rarely appreciate a hard sell, though you can always use a blog post as a “warm-up,” introducing your readers to a particular idea before sending them to the actual sales page. Additionally, always be up front with your readers. If you’re linking to an affiliate product which you’ll get a commission on, or reviewing a product for which you’ve been compensated, tell your readers up front. In a world of scheming marketers, readers appreciate the freshness of honesty.
Try to go viral.
You can’t force a post to go viral, but if you create high-quality, evergreen content that others will want to save, or share with their friends and followers, you will quickly create a catalog that sets your blog well above all the other “me-to’s” that litter the Web. Even if your best posts aren’t directly monetized, they can prompt readers to return and recommend your site to their own network and friends.
Purpose has no boundaries. The key is to have a reason for everything you publish, and to know that reason before you start writing. Knowing how to end a post can give you all you need to open it with a bang.
via calibervirtualservices.net
Steno pads. Spiral notebooks. Legal pads. The back of an envelope. A cocktail napkin. Receipts. The corner of a newspaper. If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you’ve got ideas striking you every hour of the day and night, and you grab the nearest writing implement and snippet of paper to scrawl a few words on. But how often do those pieces of paper make it into something more permanent?
With today’s variety of note-taking and idea-gathering software, there’s no excuse for stealing your kids’ crayons anymore. Take a look at these multimedia opportunities for storing your thoughts, ideas, photos, blog posts, and more… and best yet, they’re all free!
Evernote
Collect, sort, tag, and annotate a variety of notes and other information. Log in online or access it via your iPhone. Store your web clips, text clips, videos, audios, and more in a single file. You can even snap a photo with your mobile phone and save it. Oh yeah, you can share it with others! Find out more at Evernote.com
OneNote
This is Microsoft’s version of a note book that lets you capture text, images, video, and audio notes and take and edit notes with other people in other locations. View and edit your notes from virtually any computer with an Internet connection or your Windows phone. Available with Microsoft Office. Find out more at Office.Microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/
Springnote
This is a free, online notebook based on wiki. You can create pages, keep them in your Personal Notebook or create a Group Notebook to share with friends. Store up to 2GB online. Add photos, comments, and more. Springnote for the iPhone is also available. Find out more at Springnote.com
Tumblr
If you’re the visual type, you might want to take a look at this note book. Billed as “the easiest way to blog,” it’s a fun way to create your own virtual bulletin board with pictures, photos, quotes, audio, video, and more. You can set your privacy level and collaborators, creating a bulletin board just for yourself, or one to share with a team or the public. There’s also a free iPhone app. Find out more at Tumblr.com
After perusing these sites, you’ve probably come up with a dozen or more ideas that you quickly jotted down on a scrap of paper somewhere. Don’t waste them – choose a note-taking solution and get your thoughts and goals down safely and permanently. You can’t act on your ideas if you don’t remember where you put those notes!
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PHOTO: MEGAN MORRIS
