WordPress Blogging Tools and SEO tips for Online Entrepreneurs
“The Dali Blogger” : Sharing Tips on WordPress Blogging, SEO, Mindset and Life
-
3 Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur
There are many characteristics an entrepreneur must possess in order to thrive.
Today we’ll focus on three major ones.
I. The Successful Entrepreneur Makes Quick Decisions:
In order to excel as an online entrepreneur, you must make quick decisions and move forward. You must decide that you will be the best at what you do.
Every day you make countless decisions that affect your productivity. You must decide what you will work on and if your tasks will be a productive or counterproductive use of your time.
Sometimes, personal challenges affect our focus and drive.
Just a few days ago I was in a personal challenge slump and did not find I could focus or stay productive as a result. Thankfully, I told myself, "Dali, you cannot let your personal challenges take you off course. You’ve got to get back to it and complete all the things you know you must do in order to excel."
If you’ve followed - or just know me- you’ll probably notice that I’m very proactive and productive. Yet, it wasn’t until I made the decision to move on in spite of my challenges that I began to regain focus and get my productivity groove back. The last two weeks have been incredibly productive for me because I made the decision not to let my personal circumstances tear me down.
II. The Successful Entrepreneur Takes Extreme Measures
You must take extreme measures and do what no one else won’t in order to have the success that most don’t. Sounds like the mindset of an ambitious online entrepreneur?!
Today I sat and did some major keyword research for a new niche blog I’m creating. I realize that in total, I invested (not spent) about 3 hours of my time doing the tedious, yet critical steps any successful online entrepreneur must take in order to thrive and dominate any niche. Yes, my friends, it’s a long time…and yes I could outsource, but sometimes you just love to be a control freak (lol).
When you take the extra steps to outshine "competition" you ensure that you are more visible to your target market, and that pays dividends!
III. Takes Full Responsibility for Failures & Successes
Too often many of us feel the need to blame others for our failures and don’t look in the mirror and see that we are the causes of all our failures and successes. We can blame others as much as we want, but remember that we can’t control circumstances outside ourselves, but we can control how we react to external circumstances.
What other attributes do you feel are critical to the success of an entrepreneur?
For some really cool inspiration check out an interview with Party Plan Pat courtesy of the Traveling Saleswoman. While most of you may not be in the Home party plan business, this interview will definitely serve as some major inspiration as to what is possible when you have the mindset of an entrepreneur.
In fact, I’ve decided to begin an interview series with successful online entrepreneurs soon, and will be having Party Plan Pat as a guest really soon. Stay tuned…
As always, I appreciate you!
Dali Burgado
Outsourcing for Productivity and Success Online
So is outsourcing something the Internet marketing gurus can do or can up-and-coming Internet marketers, entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs also take advantage of the productivity benefits outsourcing has on his/her online success?
I recently had the privilege to connect with a really savvy Internet Marketer in the UK by the name of Ray Johnson via Twitter . I am just loving Twitter by the way - if you’re not on there you should get yourself a Twitter account! I’ve been meeting tons of great folks, JV partners and great folks to network with on Twitter.
Ray Johnson and I got into a conversation about outsourcing and the misconception most budding Internet marketers have about outsourcing as something only Internet marketing gurus can do or afford.
This gets into the mindset block most of us have about believing we have to know it all in order to find success online. I know I surely have felt that way in the not so distant past. However, I realized I only had so many hours in the day as well as two toddlers ages (3 and 2) who keep me very busy!
That’s when I told myself, "Dali, why aren’t you leveraging your skill sets" and partnering with others to focus on your strengths and let others do the stuff you can’t stand doing?"
At the time I connected with Ray I was already thinking "how can I focus on what I love so I become even more productive."
So ask yourself, what do you love about working your online business?
Make a list of the top 2-3 things you would do all day simply because you have the passion for it. Anything not on that list should be gradually and eventually be delegated or outsourced.
In my case, I absolutely love to blog, write, and build relationships online and offline, so I tend to stick to those strengths. However, I don’t enjoy writing articles for submission online, so that is one of the things I outsource.
This is not to say that outsourcing is the only way to succeed in your business. You must also learn how to monetize online. There are many ways to do that. One way to do that is to create your own product. However, not all of us have the expertise, writing skills, and budget to do that. If you do, creating your own product will help brand you online and establish you as an expert in your niche.
Most new online marketers prefer to promote someone else’s product (as an affiliate) while they gain the skills and confidence and expertise to create their own product. But let me not digress :-) This is another blog post in and of itself.
Outsourcing can ease the burden of you feeling like you have to do EVERYTHING and be the one man or woman show. Success is all about collaboration and delegation. Why not learn to outsource?
If you’d like to know more about outsourcing check out this FREE leaked Chapter by my Friend Ray Johnson: Outsource2Success Free Leaked Chapter
Besides the great insight in this leaked chapter, Ray provides a way for you to make money by simply recommending this free leaked chapter from Outsourcing2Success.
Happy Outsourcing!
Your Partner in Online Productivity,
Dali Burgado
Time Management and Entrepreneurship
Do you ever wonder why some entrepreneurs have excellent time management skills while others seem to work effortlessly and get the same accomplished in less time?
The answer to that lies in the fact that time management is an entrepreneurial myth.
Time is irrelevant when you can concentrate on the core activities that yield profit. In fact, I dare say time is always in YOUR favor. But you may be self-sabotaging your success and productivity. Like my friend, Deontee Gordon, recently mentioned…”sometimes we just have to get out of our own way.” We do not always work in our own favor.
What do I mean by that? It’s our own beliefs about Time Management that make us shoot ourselves in the foot when it comes to being productive.
Most entrepreneurs have several misconceptions about entrepreneurship and productivity because we’ve been trained by our socio-economic culture to think like an employee. Employees must always appear busy or else they will get fired, so they think of all the things they can do to stay busy.
Most of the “employee mindset” remains with us when we transition to entrepreneurship. And it’s a habit that has to be unlearned when transitioning to entrepreneurship.
This mindset surely followed me when I began working for myself 6 years ago. Most of us feel like we have to work ourselves to death without rest in order to be super successful. In reality that is not completely true. The beginning stage of entrepreneurship is always the biggest challenge. However, when you’re an established entrepreneur - most of us continue to believe keeping busy and squeezing the juice out of every second of the day is the way to go. Uggh. No sirree.
Being productive is really about managing yourself and your priorities (especially those that yield results).
In order to be productive online you must know which activities yield the most results. Prioritization and focus are critical to your success. You will discover your core activities by trial and error, education, and intuition.
As long as you focus on the key processes in your business – time is your friend!
Your core activities may or may not be so different from mine. Here are mine:
These activities are creating the most value in my businesses:
1) Blogging and building a relationship with you - my readers
2) Building relationships online (mainly via Twitter and Facebook)
3) Following up with consulting client requests
4) Building my “A List Network” for a Joint Venture project
Have you determined which ones yours are?
P.S. I recently read the following and thought it’d be neat to share:
If you were to be called out of town for a month what one task would you want to get completed? Start on that task immediately and work on it until it’s done.
To quote Winston Churchill,
“Our greatest business in not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”
P.P.S.
Make sure to stay tuned within the next few weeks. I will be releasing an e-book that dispels a few myths about online entrepreneurship. It will cost, but it will be a great investment nonetheless (and I’m creating an affiliate program for it, so you can make money too).
Are you overwhelmed? What prioritization challenges are you facing? Do you have a few tips you’d like to share with us? I’d love to hear from you.
Make it a productive day!
Your Partner in Online Productivity,
Dali Burgado
How to Choose a Mentor
Choosing a mentor is a great move to accelerate your success online, as well as in any endeavor. But how do you choose a mentor?
This week I was approached by 4 companies/individuals proposing some sort of mentorship.
The only downside is that when given so many choices it gets challenging to choose. So I thought: “why not blog about how to choose a mentor?”
The neat thing about having a mentor - besides helping you shorten the learning curve to your desired success - is that a mentor can help keep you super productive too.
You know you’ve found the right mentor when:
1) You see their present as YOUR future:
When you connect with someone on a deep level, you do so because you share something in common. It may be the person’s drive, enthusiasm or passion that you have in common. Whatever it might be, you know you’ve spotted a good mentor when you see qualities in them that you desire and want to emulate. Because I am passionate about helping others find ways to find success online through social networking, I have a mentor who is great at networking. I also share a passion for creating information products so I have another mentor who is a successful and proven information marketer.
When making the choice to be mentored you must ensure you see their present as YOUR future.
2) They are teaching something you want to do NOW
In order to ensure you are on track to reaching your goals and stay productive, you must ensure that what your potential mentor is proposing to teach you is something you want to do now (or in the very near future). I am presently in the midst of finishing my online productivity and goal-setting ebook, so I found a mentor who has produced their own information products and has a proven system to market them.
In addition, it would be best to find someone in the same niche as you.
3) Big Relationship Builders
Great mentors have the ability to encourage and inspire others. They believe in their students and motivate them to stay the course in spite of a student’s lack of confidence. A great mentor will have passionate belief in you. When a mentor projects that belief onto you, it will help you believe more in yourself. You will know when you spot a great mentor because you will see they genuinely care.
A great mentor creates a relationship that nurtures the mentee with education and action plans to take it to the next level. In essence, they are great relationships builders.
4) A great mentor has marketing systems in place
Top marketers in any field have systems in place that duplicate their success time and time again. One of my mentors has had multiple six figure months selling information products because they have marketing systems in place. I am not saying this to brag or to boast, but to say that incredibly successful mentors are successful because of the systems they have to help them market their products and services. AND they must be willing to teach you their system so that you can copy them. This is not to say you must choose a mentor who is so above you that you feel intimidated. As long as you believe you can do what they are doing now, and you are willing to be led, you will succeed.
Having a mentor can be critical to your success. Without a mentor you flounder around trying to learn everything on your own. It took me several years to realize I should seek the help of others. We don’t succeed on our own. We do so by emulating successful leaders and following those leaders in our niche.
Happy mentor finding!
Your Partner in Online Productivity and Success,
Dali Burgado
Accountability Partnerships: A Solution to Online Business Productivity and Success
Most Internet Marketers, Affiliate Marketers, or Internet Network Marketers, suffer at some point in time from information overload . It seems as though there is always too much to do and so little time to do it.
There are so many:
- Social media networking sites to participate
- New affiliate products to promote
- Internet marketing products
- Online marketing strategies to implement
Oftentimes we feel overwhelmed because we lack focus and clarity.
We don’t know where to begin.
Sometimes we just like to be involved in every online conversation and get sidetracked from our primary goals.
It can be quite challenging to weed through all the Internet information overload and commotion and put the blinders on to focus on your primary projects.
A while ago I felt that very same way.
Fast forward 6 months…
Today I feel very accomplished and productive in my online endeavors thanks to my finding and accountability partner.
An accountability partner is someone who plain and simply holds you accountable to what you say you will do during any given day. He or she will listen to your goals and your “to dos” and help you prioritize and strategize ways to plan your day effectively.
Ideally, accountability partners speak every work morning and discuss their plans for the day. That evening, or following morning, the accountability buddies check in and report what they completed or did not complete.
Here’s what having Accountability Partner does for you:
1) Motivates you when you feel you are going through a challenging time.
2) Encourages you to continue when you feel like throwing in the towel.
3) Inspires you to be more focused, especially when you see your accountability partner achieve something they set out to do – It inspires you to keep up your momentum to do the same.
4) Provides that accountability you rarely keep to yourself.
5) It is like your business insurance ; if you don’t get something done and forget about it, you have someone to remind you of what’s most important.
The first time I experienced the joy of working with an accountability buddy was with a program called “Call to Action ” at the Human Communications Institute , founded by transformational and motivational speaker, Michael Bernhoff. I had the pleasure of working with one of Michael’s assistants – Gilena – who was my accountability buddy for a full week. I was incredibly productive - so productive that in one week, I completed what I would have done in what seemed like three months worth of work. (By the way, if you call Gileana and tell her Dali Burgado referred you - she’ll have a cool surprise for you).
I now have an accountability buddy I have the privilege to call a good friend - Andrea Goodsaid .
I have noticed the changes we both have made in our online business productivity.
When we began our partnership, I helped her decide on her most pressing project; we began to brainstorm ways to help her get going and what to complete before moving on to the next project.
Once she became focused things took off and she got the ball rolling on something she had been meaning to do but didn’t quite get around to doing it.
I’ve also noticed great changes in my activity.
Now I don’t focus on filling my days up with any type of work or activity, I’ve become somewhat of an Online Productivity Geek
Today I tend to avoid getting side-tracked by time-fillers.
I also find myself completing tasks a lot faster. The neat thing is that our accountability partnership turned into a Joint Venture Partnership.
Now this is all fine and Dandy, Dali, But How do I find find an accountability partner?
I’m glad you asked!
Here are some tips on Finding and Choosing the Right Accountability Partner for You
1) Think of people who are motivated and success-driven . You’ll want someone who is reliable and who will really hold you accountable. A great place to find accountability partners are on online forums or social networking sites.
2) Think of someone who might compliment your skills set . i.e. a savvy Internet marketer who has some experience in marketing that you don’t yet have. It is nice when you can exchange marketing tips and mutually benefit from each others’ experiences.
3) Find someone in your niche. Your accountability buddy doesn’t have to be in your particular online business or network marketing company. I met my partner on an online forum. We shared the same philosophies and had several things in common. We also connected on a personal level before we decided to be buddies.
4) Make sure you are both participating equally. Effort must be shown on both sides to make the partnership work.
5) Meet often. Ideally every work day will assist you to be more consistent and productive in your business.
6) Talk about personal goals too. You will both want to make sure you create balance in your personal lives in order to be successful in your business because what affects you personally will affect you in your business.
7) Your partner should be someone you can trust . In the event you have things going on personally, you should feel comfortable speaking to your buddy about it – not necessarily at length, but on a level where they know you are not at 100% that day.
Don’t forget to Have fun – Having an accountability buddy also makes your journey to online success a lot more fun. You will begin to see how two people can co-create awesome experiences by brainstorming and keeping each other on task.Having someone to connect with on a daily basis who shares your concerns and experience really gives you the added fuel to remain productive and consistent in your business. It’s like having your very own accelerated program for online success.
Do you have an accountability partner already?
Do you have tips on how to make accountability partnerships more productive? Share them with us!
I appreciate you!
Your Partner in Online Success and Prosperity,
Dali Burgado
Building an Online Presence Imperfectly
When I first started to teach myself how to build an online presence I wanted to soak up tons of information before getting started. I soon realized I was in the “analysis paralysis” stage and wasn’t putting myself out there.
It wasn’t that I didn’t feel I was a good writer. I happen to believe I’m an awesome writer. I am confident that I can express ideas clearly. However, I was afraid to be imperfect. That fear stopped me from taking action.
I wanted a perfect online presence. I wanted to make sure I knew all the “rules” to building an effective Internet presence. That mindset delayed my success.
You see, I came to realize taking imperfect action is 100 times better than taking no action at all.
Usually we are really the only ones stopping ourselves from being successful or from reaching a goal.
Self-sabotage is real.
We fear that if we do things inadequately the world is going to point a big fat finger at us and laugh.
Many of us even fear success.
I know often times I HAVE. It’s crazy to think that we would, but we do. When we delay in making decisions and taking action we delay the success we deserve and desire.
The truth is successful leaders make quick decisions and take action imperfectly. I had to learn that.
When you develop your presence online you will learn as you build your Internet content.
We all make mistakes. No big deal.
Take your mistakes in stride and focus on taking IMPERFECT ACTION to build that online presence.
Your Partner in Online Productivity and Success,
Dali Burgado
Protect Your Internet Assets with RSS Footer WP Plugin
If you are like me and you love to write unique quality web content, you’d like to protect your Internet assets.
This morning I received a Google Alert for a keyword I am tracking and I found a link to one of my ezine articles.
Unfortunately, I noticed my link had been stripped from my content.
After looking deeper, I realized it was someone with a new blog who is using RSS Scraper software to add others’ content to their blog. RSS Scraper software searches RSS Feeds for content, given a particular key word, and adds the content automatically to others’ sites without that person having to create original content.
When you work hard on creating quality content it can be upsetting to see that someone has stripped your link from your original work.
Therefore, if you are looking to protect your Internet assets (namely your blog posts from being scraped by scraper software)…you are really going to appreciate the following blog post from Jennifer of Pot Pie Girl:
Here Pot Pie Girl talks about a simple Wordpress Plugin (RSS Footer Wordpress Plugin) that allows you to add a link to the bottom of your RSS feed linking back to your blog AND to the original post. In this manner, you are creating ‘ownership’ of your content and linking back to it’s original location!
A special thanks to Jackie Lee (Internet Marketing for Mommies) and Jennifer (Pot Pie Girl) for sharing this awesome tool! I’ve already added this plugin!
To Our Online Productivity,
Dali Burgado
Blog Article Updates by RSS or Email
|
Where You Can Find Me
|
|
|
|
Internet and Blog Marketing Resources
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Twitter Thought Stream
- Protected: JSYC-Special: There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. Post from: Secrets to Web Success L... http://bit.ly/cfvk57
- Posted: Protected: JSYC-Special http://bit.ly/c2cIsP
- @SocialMediaXprt Thanks for RT Jimmy!
- @SmartWoman You're welcome, girl!
- @alejandroreyes You're very welcome, Alejandro! Great video.
Favorite This Blog on Technorati
