Writing on the Web from Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Mind Masters: How to change your business mindset

That book by Carol Dweck, The Mindset of Success, has me getting out from behind my computer this month more than I have all year. Last night I went to an old colleague's open house and reconnected with people I hadn't seen in at least 5 8 years!

John Leach of John Leach Associates provides assessments and training to companies such as city governments and NASA. I partnered with John in the late 90s to deliver workshops on Emotional Intelligence, communications, and other training. John is relaunching his company in San Diego with some great plans for training workshops and assessments, including partnering with CMC.

The highlight of the evening was seeing Barbara Eldridge again. Barbara is one smart cookie, with tons of business coaching expertise. She runs Mind Masters, mastermind groups of entrepreneurs who put their heads together for business success.

Mastermind groups are a clever way to harness the wisdom of others. Instead of working in a vacuum, you can run things by other business owners and get feedback from experts. Barbara has over 28 years of business experience to draw upon, with a specialty in helping entrepreneurs.

Denise and I participate in an online virtual mastermind group where we can share what works and what doesn't. What are you doing to open your mind for business success?

Mindset: How it can grow your business - or shut it down

Have you read Mindset: the New Psychology of Success? Carol Dweck, a research psychologist authored the book in 2006 after accumulating 20 years of data. After reading it, I signed up and attended 3 conferences in order to open up my learning mindset!

This is a change-your-way-of-thinking book that can easily improve your life and business, right away. It answers the question: "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?"

According to Dweck, when young children are told they have high IQs, they easily adopt a closed mindset. They know they are smart, so they tend to not try anything that is challenging. Fast forward 30 years, and that smart person may avoid risking anything that might show them to be deficient.

A closed mindset can mean that you stop learning, stop attending conferences, because you "know all that already."

It explains why high achievers and high IQ scores don't always succeed when promoted, and why some executives thrive and others fall prey to "CEO disease."

That's why I wrote an article for Customized Newsletter Services, available for purchase and use in your newsletters and blogs: Mindset: Why Executives Thrive...or Barely Survive.

Big Idea Wrapped in Small Package

Just got off the phone with Kathleen Gage, of Street Smarts Marketing with a Big Idea in the works... But I can't tell you what it is because we're not ready yet to take the paper off!

The Blog Squad is teaming up with Kathleen to bring you a really important gift on December 17th... but that's the problem - when you're not working alone you can't spill the beans ahead of time... Denise and Kathleen swore me to secrecy...of course they can't stop me from letting you know the date and just the fact that something's coming...

Editing Teleseminar Transcripts - Some things you gotta do yourself

I admit it: I hate editing transcripts. It's not something you can easily outsource either. I've got a good editor and a good proof reader, and we use a great transcriber for our teleseminar audios. But have you ever read through an unedited transcript?

Garbage. People don't use English correctly. Forget about the extra hums and hahs, and incomplete sentences. Besides that, some people - excuse me, I mean me, myself and I - don't express thoughts firmly and concisely.

If you offer transcripts of your teleseminars, be sure to edit them thoroughly. People don't like to pay for unedited and incomprehensible scripts. Even though it takes time to go through them line by line, if you don't, you will earn yourself a bad reputation for the quality of your information products. You can't afford that.

The only solution is to edit and get someone to read through your edits and edit all over again. Make sure your transcripts contain easily readable sentences, even to the point where you change what was actually said on the audio file. This is why you can't hire an editor to do this task for you. Since you were on the call, you will be able to interpret and add meaning to your transcripts. An editor can't do this for you.

We've seen too many "Home Study Kits" that are nothing more than audio files with poorly transcribed and unedited scripts that don't explain what the speakers really meant to say. If you offer such products, make sure you give your clients good value.

Back Home Blues

You know how hard it is to get back to work after a vacation, right? And I love my work... Here's what made this the best vacation ever...
This was a celebration of my 10-year marriage anniversary to Rob Krakoff, entrepreneur extraordinaire, and super dad to Huey and Dewey. (Also known as PapaRocky to grandkids Alex, Zach, Spenser, Jordan and Megan...)

Dia de Gracias en Puerta Vallarta

I think I spelled that right, as in Happy Thanksgiving from Mexico! The Hubby and I are soaking up the sun this week away from computers and email. I brought my new Flip video and PowerShot digital camera so stay tuned for some audio visual treats!

For all our US readers, I hope you are enjoying a few days with family filled with love and thankfulness. Blessings and love!

Writing Content for Your Website: Do you need pain pills?

Some of us enjoy writing, so I forget how painful it can be for most of the world. Colleague Rich Brooks shares his experience working with clients who come to him for web design and creation.

Content Creation is Painful
by Guest Blogger Rich Brooks
Flyte New Media

Before the job starts:

    "I'm just going to take the content from the current site."
    "This stuff is going to write itself."
    "I expect to knock it out over the weekend. After all, this is my business."

After the job ends:

    "That took twice as long as I thought it would."
    "That reminded me of sitting in the dentist's chair during the Novocaine shortage of '94."
    "You Web monkey bastards! You told me writing content was easy!"

No matter how much you love your job, no matter how passionate you are about what you do, writing content is going to be much more work than you think.

I had a prospect in here this morning who straight up said to me, "I know that writing content is going to be painful." He got it.

Writing content is a big pain. Since the content has to be written we can't free the client from that pain (unless they want to hire a copywriter.)

However, we have put together a Content Intake Packet that leads clients step-by-step through the process of maximizing their content for readability, search engine optimization, and engagement. It doesn't lessen the workload, but it makes it manageable.

I guess we're in the pain management business.

Rich Brooks
Pusherman

What to Do When Someone Steals Your Content

Today's guest blogger is John T. Unger of TypepadHacks.org, a great resource for customizing Typepad blogs. John's post is a great review of what to do about content theft, all the way from thanking them for the links, to reporting them. John also writes about RSS feeds and whether it's best to use full feeds or partial. I agree with him, I like reading full feeds, what about you?

What To Do When People Steal Your Blog Content

This article reprinted from the TypePad Hacks Weblog. The original article can be found online here.
© 2007, John T Unger

In a recent comment, Sylvia Forester asked

   

What can we do to stop Bitacle from stealing our posts and making money off of them?

Rather than responding in the comments, it seemed like a good topic for a full blog post. Copyright and IP law are much too large a topic to cover extensively here, but I can provide a few thoughts on where to start.

I haven't looked at Bitacle previously, but with a quick scan of a couple pages it appears to me that they do include a link back to the original content when they repost material. This may in fact be a benefit to your blog, as people who use Bitacle for search may find you for the first time and become regular readers…

There are a number of sites that I allow to republish content from the TypePad Hacks blog in order to reach a wider audience. They send a fair bit of traffic and I don't begrudge them a few advertising dollars in exchange. On the other hand, it is possible that your reputation could be harmed by spam blogs harvesting your posts and republishing them on sites that contain offensive or dangerous material.

Doin' the Biz Blog Boogie: Two steps to profits

Do you know how to do the two step biz blog boogie? It goes like this: take Rich Brook's blog post on 10 Tips for a Profitable Blog and do step 1 and step 10.

Guest Blogger --Rich Brooks
President, flyte new media

There's no doubt that more businesses are realizing the power of blogging to establish their expertise, rank higher at the search engines, and improve their communication with prospects and customers.

But as more companies jump into the blogosphere it becomes more difficult for your blog to get noticed, and therefore to make you money. Here are ten quick tips to make your blog a profitable marketing tool.

1. Blog for your audience. As the blogosphere matures, the face of business blogging is changing as well. Although the discourse can still be freer than your Web site or email newsletter, people want content they can use. A few posts in a row about what you had for breakfast and you're toast.

10. Leverage your blog traffic into real business. Don't forget that this is your business blog, not your personal one; you're looking for a return on investment. Create appropriate calls-to-action in the form of links that drive traffic from your blog to your Web site or online store.

Just don't be too heavy handed; visitors won't become subscribers or customers if you're doing nothing but self-promotion. Use a deft hand to establish your expertise and build relationships with readers, but make it easy for them to buy from you when they're ready.

Blog for your customers  because nothing else will have an impact if you don't focus on their needs. Blog for your business  because the purpose of a business blog is to help your company grow and succeed.

To read steps 2 through 9, visit --Flyte New Media Blog

Thanksgiving Vacation - What I'm taking with me...

Of course I'm taking my laptop, and so is the Hubby. I'll catch up on reading some ebooks I've downloaded, do some editing and maybe even some fresh writing. The hubby will use his for playing World of Warcraft...

I just got my Amazon purchases: a Flip Video, a Canon PowerShot A560 digital camera, Sony earphones that go over the ear so they don't fall out while working out, and three books: the Experience Economy, Authenticity (both by Gilmore and Pine) and The Future of Management by Gary Hamel.

This vacation might be a little more sedentary: I twisted my knee and I'm not sure I'll be able to play much tennis. So I'll play around with these new toys, and - hey, here's an idea: maybe I'll just relax! Hasta la vista!