Who cares?

Search engines are complicated, proprietary, heartless machines that chew up poor, unsuspecting websites and spit out a category based on what it tastes like. These categories are used to literally rank a site’s individual pages based on their relevancy for particular word or phrase. The rank, as it is referred to, is the key to getting more people coming to your website (called traffic) which can lead to more sales/appointments/contacts (called conversions).

Unless you don’t actually care if anyone goes to your website, you should be concerned with how findable you are on-line. Studies show that unless you’re on the first or second page (mostly just the first), you won’t get clicked on very often, your page will get minimal exposure, and your time and effort creating the site in the first place will be for naught.

Your rank in a particular search engine for a particular word or phrase is, simply, a combination of the following (more or less in this order):

1. How many other sites point to you as a reference, particularly for that word (known as incoming links)
2. How regularly that word is used on your page and where it appears (page titles, meta information, content)
3. How “good” your site is (lots of focused content, continual updates, age of site)

If you want people to see the information you have, if you want to turn web browsers into customers, and if you want to take advantage of the biggest marketplace of potential customers, you’ll give more than a second thought to how you are seen by a search engine.

Why is SEO important?

Consider what it would be like if no one could easily find your place of business, or even your telephone number. Most businesses could not continue for long in such a situation. The same thing can happen with your web site if people cannot easily locate it. Traffic volume, if it existed at all, slows to a crawl. Potentially valuable customers never even know you are there.

Key word strategy & generation

I’ll start off by saying that this is the single most important thing that needs to be done for a site… and, of course, it’s the hardest thing to do, the easiest to get wrong, and the most lengthy process. There is a lot of information available online about keyword strategy so this description will be brief.

Keywords are the words for which people are searching. Keywords for your own website are the words that people are searching to reach your website. Picking the right keywords is partially an exercise in putting yourself in your customers’ shoes and partially in avoiding words that are too common. Putting yourself in your customers’ shoes means that you’re thinking about words that your customers would use to find you. Avoiding common words means that you’re not competing directly in search results with sites that have a very strong presence and might be in a totally different industry.

Here are three simple steps towards picking keywords that can work for you.

1. Choose words that you think people might be using to find your site. Come up with about 20. These are probably not the words you’re going to use.
2. Go to google.com/keywords, type in your words, allow synonyms, and search. You should have a list of potentially hundreds of different words.
3. Pick about 5-8 words that have low-ish advertiser competition (under half), a good amount of searches but not too many (different for every situation but I usually pick words that are under 10K monthly searches), and a flat or upward trend (current month is higher or the same as the average).

These keywords should be used as-is throughout the site, it’s structure, image descriptions, and the text content.

Each step comes with it’s own set of complexities but, if you’ve walked through these steps, even if you’re confused by the end of it, you’re a step ahead of many, many people on the web.

Building a functional keyword strategy is not something you just do once. Seach engine optimization is something you need to do on a regular basis. I see it as a scientific process. You start with an idea, a hypothesis (”my clients will find me by searching ‘eye care’ and ‘cataract correction’”). Then you design an experiment to test your original hypothesis (”We’re going to write a few pages of content, each one concentrating on a different part of the keywords we chose”). Data is gathered and analyzed and a new path is chosen (”Our traffic went up 30% with these keywords… are we getting all the benefit that we can?”). Time and culture will change search patterns so what used to be a golden word for you, may become stale and unpopular. Keep checking those analytics reports!

Need help?

If you’re looking to increase traffic on your business website and need some help with all of this, give me a call (contact info on the top left of this site), I’d be glad to help. SEO techniques are important and confusing and it helps to have someone there to guide your efforts.

The folks over at Young Entrepreneur’s blog (YEB)have been kind enough to review the structure of my blog in exchange for a review and link to their blog. Happy to oblige!This is a blog I subscribe to and read on a regular basis because of their solid content.

Why I read this blog

I started reading YEB because I am young (ish?) and an entrepreneur, for the  most part. I figured, hey, this thing must be written for me.

From what I’m read, I’m guessing that the staff don’t have a long history of starting and raising successful companies. I don’t say this because the advice is bad, I say it because it had more of a “hey, let’s get together and figure this out” feeling rather than a “I’ve done this and this is what works for me” feeling. Nothing wrong with that at all, it’s a great way to build community.

After a while, I really wanted to read about people who had really made it and how it all came together for them. Coincidentally enough, YEB started interviewing experts more and posting words from famous business starters from all different industries. Perfect!

I read the blog for the interviews and the Entrepreneur University section, for the most part. They include write-ups about other things but the unique content they provide me are the sound bytes.

Thanks YEB! Keep it going!

Tools and resources for entrepreneurs and business minded individuals who are growing their business at the Young Entrepreneur’s Blog!

Good financial advice from the Wisdom Journal:

Are YOU prepared? The greatest opportunities are spawned from the most formidable obstacles and deep wisdom is born from painful circumstances. Good always triumphs and there IS something good that will come from these hard economic times. Be prepared for the coming opportunities by:

• Getting out of debt.
• Setting up an emergency fund.
• Establishing a common sense budget.
• Living within below your means.
• Updating your skills and resume.
• Having a prosperous mindset at all times.
• Educating yourself on financial matters.

Be careful, stack loot, and stay financially safe. It’ll all be over soon but don’t lose more than you have to.

Introduction

I was listening to a BBC program the other day that was talking about whether grandparents raising their grandkids was a good thing or a bad thing. Some people called in to say, yes, it was good but also bad. Other people called in to say it was bad, but also good. In the end, it seemed like the show’s host, whether on directive or personally motivated, was looking for “the truth,” in the sense that she wanted an answer - the answer. This is the format of most discourse in modern-day media, it seems, because it simplifies the issue down to the proverbial black and white. Instead of looking for some perspective on things, the conversation, apparently, always needs to come to a conclusion.

Self Help by hagner_james on flickr

I see this mentality a lot when I read the prolific “self-help” & “personal-growth” genre of blogs. There are “keys to success,” “paths to financial freedom” and, my favorite, “rock-solid ways to improve productivity.” If you’re familiar with blogs, then you’ll know the format of a catchy title, a hooky intro, and subsequent headers that are action-packed and full of information (cough). Knowing this, it’s hard to be TOO critical of the content because, hey, people are reading it and subscribing to it and linking to it and people are getting paid and everything is great. Still, there is something a bit funny about someone who discovered their path to productivity on their own but then shares it as the gospel of getting things done.

So, I’m going to share with you how I work. This method would/will drive certain people nuts. This method is not foolproof but none of them are. It also doesn’t work for absolutely everything, but none of the other ones do either. I read a lot of the productivity posts out there, internalize the message, and typically end up rejecting a lot of it. My system is probably a hybrid of all the things I’ve read about “making work happen.” Still, I modified it to be my own and, while I’m always changing and improving, it’s working well for me (ask the friends and family I don’t talk to enough).

I’m new to all of this… how can this help?

It’s so easy to get caught up on the “self-help” cycle of reading other people’s insights constantly and going nowhere in your own life. It’s also easy to get down on yourself if you just CAN’T meditate for an hour in the morning with a warm cup of white tea and visualize your day coming together. Some people work one way, some work another, and many don’t work at all. I want to tell you what I do to manage the chaos, live in the chaos, and use the chaos to my advantage. Maybe you’ll learn something, maybe you won’t but hopefully, by the end of this, you’ll at least feel OK about having your OWN system (or no system).

1. I work on what I want to work on

I’m simply incapable of being motivated and productive when I work on projects that don’t have my full interest. I’m still trying to figure out if this is just a human thing or a particular limitation of mine. Regardless if the origin is DNA- or species-related, it is something that affects my professional life profoundly.

Part of having a job of any kind is taking the good with the bad. This is, thankfully, true for rockstars, artists, programmers, teachers, and everyone else. We all have those moments, some more than others. So what to do when you get tired of something?

Move right along. Do the next thing. Stop what you’re doing before you ruin it.

If I can’t write, I don’t write and I try something different like web coding or maybe a bit of design or just run-of-the-mill organization. If I’m not feeling mentally capable, I do something repetitive. If I’m feeling competent and smart, I try to tackle something high level. Unless it’s due, people are waiting, or something’s on fire, if I don’t want to contribute, I don’t.

2. I jump from project to project, sometimes mid-sentence

This might be the most destructive of my tendencies but so far so good.

Unfinished and forgotten by Zach_ManchesterUK on flickr

I’ve been writing an email to someone, lost the motivation to type and switched to something else immediately. I wasn’t interrupted, the connection wasn’t broken, I didn’t change my mind, I just decided not to continue emailing. I often save drafts with unfinished sentences, let alone paragraphs.

Sometimes your inspiration to complete a certain task only lasts so long. Maybe the first couple paragraphs are gold and the rest are, say, crap. Instead of just pushing through for the sake of doing so, I stop and move on to come back when the motivation re-arises.

Now, there are times when it pays to sit down, drill in, and concentrate on what you’re doing. There are many things that require a strong train of thought and benefit from moving from idea to idea within a framework. There are more things, however, that simply don’t need that kind of attention. Emails in any form, documents, web pages… many things just need you to complete mental modules and then you can move on.

Never underestimate solid concentration with no interruptions for long periods of time. Don’t be afraid, however, to take microbreaks and split your project into chunks. The drip drip drip can, in many cases, lead to a better output.

3. I keep close track of (almost) everything

I’m on top of my shit, that’s all there is to it.

I stay in close contact with people and I do what I say I’m going to do. I’m frequently used by other people as their system of organization because I keep things moving and can remember where things left off. I’m not great with uber-minutia and I can’t possibly admit to always being on time, remembering anything, and making no mistakes. What I don’t do, however, is drop the ball.

I keep my inbox empty or as close as possible. I don’t move anything to a long-term to do list unless it’s a personal project. Anything client-related is up-front and center because I put it there. Things shift in priority, no doubt, but I don’t stop doing things because I forgot about them/. They either lost everyone’s interest or died off.

This helps me keep very current with everything I’m doing and helps me to consciously lose track of things that don’t matter.

4. I stay very organized

I wouldn’t say that I’m anal about everything but everything definitely has it’s place.

Emails get saved if they’re important and should stay as emails. Otherwise, their content gets stripped quickly and moved into an appropriate secondary system (like my contacts or my calendar). My USB drive is full and it’s easy to find everything that I need. My pictures are listed and sorted in a way that makes sense to my brain.

I don’t spend all day scheming up systems and sorting things around; that would defeat the purpose of having a system like mine. I take care of things immediately lest they fall off my radar. Documents are saved and sorted, bookmarks are sorted and printed to PDF if they’re THAT good, and personal information gets saved into Outlook (on my phone, synced at work, and exported into Excel to make sure I don’t lose track.

Again, I’m not the picture of organizational perfection but it’s hard for things to slip through the cracks. I make it that way so I can work the way I want to.

5. I’m quick to abandon a system that isn’t working

If my organization is the glue then this is the engineer to check to make sure my glue is holding.

I don’t “swear by” my system and I certainly would not go out of my way to recommend it (I would recommend SOME kind of system, though). I’m always on the lookout for better ways to do what I do because I always  like to save time and change is a good thing.

I try out new systems, software, methods, tools, etc but, more often than not, my day-to-day functioning doesn’t change much. This is because I re-iterate, check, and evaluate what I’m doing on a constant basis. This isn’t quite a conscious process, it’s more like something that’s in the back of my head. If a certain piece of software is pissing me off or I keep forgetting to do something or something is irritating me, a red flag appears and I’m ready to replace it.

Case in point, my email situation. I have too many damn email accounts to keep track of for no good. I have a business one that I access with my phone and Gmail. I also have a separate Gmail, separate Hotmail, separate Yahoo, and an office account. In the end, I feel no more connected because I have a million email accounts. I’m in the process of overhauling this system to make it work for me (expect a post about it).

That’s all

Yeah, just that.

Though the way I work is a bit unorthodox, I’ve shown many people how to make their lives easier using free/cheap software and a system to use it. I absolutely would not be as successful as I am without the technology that I use every day. If you’re interested in learning about getting your professional life together in a way that makes sense and isn’t a burden, get a hold of me.

I built a blog a couple weeks ago for a very talented teacher and graffiti artist who stays here in San Diego. We were both excited to create something that could easily hold updates and be a central place for fans and potential clients. It has an urban feeling but is still classy, well-laid-out, and very functional.

So, now he’s got this blog… how does he build this blog up. The actual question:

ok so my blog is hooked up how do i send it and link it to other peoples sites… get it out there?

This is a key question, especially for someone who wants to use the internet to gani a bit of exposure. His current web presence is very static and not easy to manuever at all. The blog was my idea and, by the time I had explained it to him, he loved it.

So, here’s what I told him, appended after the fact with a bit more information.

Spread the word, my friend.

First things first, send an email to every email address you’ve got. Tell them about it, what it’s there for, and they they should expect to see. Even better, announce your intentions ON the blog itself as well.

Activate that friend and family network, that is step one. The people close to you and your existing fans want to hear more than anyone else how and what you are doing. The great part about running a blog that is tied into your personal life is that the news of your life can be slightly re-purposed and presented publicly. I like to use this site as somewhere I can announce what I’ve got going on and really analyze them completely. For me, writing about something either gels it in my head or it removes it completely. Sometimes I’ve got too much to say about something and can’t stop typing - these topics are ones I explore further and continually write about. Then, sometimes I think I’ve got something to say and I can’t write anything - these topics are ones I can forget about.

I’m digressing a bit (surprise, surprise) but the first thing to do is to send an email to every email address you have in your mail programs (that you can match up with a name). Here are a few resources to export your contacts:

• Export contacts from GMail
• Export contacts from Hotmail
• Export contacts from Yahoo

When you write, make sure to use the words you expect people to use when they search for what you do. Think of what words people might be using to find people who do what you do, feel me? For example, you teach graffiti techniques so think of the phrases people might be using to find that (”graffiti class” “graffiti classes San Diego” “can control” “how to write graffiti”). Be descriptive in your title and in heading text. Let me know if I lost you on that.

This is speaking to keyword research. I’m planning a few articles on how I do keyword research in the near future so I’m not going to go into depth but the KEY is this: you want to use words that people will use to search for what you have. This is confusing at first but pay attention and you’ll get it.

You probably use a specific set of words to describe what you do for people (in terms of your product, your service, your art, your instruction, etc). You use words that make sense to you and that paint an accurate picture of what you do. Now, imagine someone with whom you had coffee and to whom you explained your whole shebang needed to explain your shebang to someone else. Now, what if that next person needed to do the same. If you got two or three (maybe even the first one too) away from the original conversation, the words being used to describe what you do are not the words that YOU used originally. This is the first step towards understanding how to pick keywords.

So, for example, I might describe myself as a technology generalist, a tamer of technology, or a tech strategist, there are very few (read: no) people searching for this on the internet (yet). For my keywords, I need to pick things that people will search for to find me. These might be “build a web presence” or “design a personal web page” or “company email marketing.” I need to find words that people use to find the services that I’m offering.

Next, you’re going to want to try and find people who are doing similar or related things on the web and participate in what they’ve got going on. Go here http://blogsearch.google.com and start plugging in words that pertain to what you do. Do the same in regular Google. Start commenting on blogs, posting in forums, and connecting online. Also, sign up for Facebook if you haven’t already.

I’m talking about blatant and targeted self-promotion. Ready to virtually network?

I’ll say this: there are a million ways to go about this but, from personal experience, there is nothing more boring, unsatisfying, and time-wasting then spending several hours a day promoting yourself to people you don’t know. It’s boring because it’s repetitive, it’s unsatisfying because there’s a million other schmucks doing the same thing, and it’s time-wasting because it takes your attention away from the important things in life: relationship and creation.

I use Twitter (now) because I find a lot of great links, get some helpful information, and really enjoy the format and portability (I can add widgets to several other websites). I use Facebook because I have a lot of friends on there, it keeps me in touch with school people, and it makes me feel closer to home. I use LinkedIn because I see a lot of potential and meet some interesting people on there. I also use these tools to gently promote what I’m doing but that’s NOT the major reason I’m on any of those sites.

Read and comment on blogs because you like what someone had to say or this is a person you’d like to meet locally. I tried the “blatant self-promotion” half-heartedly for a month and found myself feeling like a blithering douche. This is why I don’t do “networking events” or anything like that. I like to talk to people that I respect, are interested in, or just like for no good reason. It’s very difficult for me (thought possible) to socialize with people simply to build the number of connections I have. I know this might be a great way to make sales or climb the ladder but it’s not interesting.

To be seen and heard online, you don’t need to trick people, you need to offer information and content that is unique, interesting, and useful. If you feel like it, just start writing about art, making art, what the experience means to you, what you learned the other day. You don’t need to write a diary but put words down that you would be likely to say to aspiring artists. Your blog will start doing its job if you’re making it important to you and start thinking “hmmm, that should go on my blog.” What starts out as somewhat of a chore eventually becomes an important piece of your day-to-day.

This is the kind of self-promotion that I do.

I’m not looking to trick someone into clicking on a link and reading my blog just so my Google stats look better. I’m also not interested in writing for a bigger audience about shit I don’t care about. I didn’t feel exactly like this a year ago but it’s what I’ve settled into. I’ll play the SEO game a bit, I’ll optimise my blog as much as possible, and I’ll spend time picking out keywords but, in terms of actual content, I’m going to write what I want to write… it’s the only way it gets done.

I used to write a blog about sustainable transportation. I followed the news religiously, went to events, and revelled in my own green lifestyle. It was fun, I got a few clicks, and made a few e-friends. But, after some time, it wasn’t much fun for me to stay on top of things. I enjoyed reading about it more than I did writing about it. Also, there were other much bigger, much more powerful blogs doing what I did only better. I became a aggregator for some of their content with a bit of commentary on top.

Now, I write about my career, what I’m learning, what I’m doing, and how this can help other people. I’m building this up slowly and still struggling to find my voice. However, like when I started the other blog, the words are just pouring out of me. I don’t have to sit in front of a monitor and STRUGGLE to find the words to say. I write about the web and science and tech and what I’m doing and it just feels natural.

Blogging, now, is a release for me rather than a chore. This is the only way to keep a blog going. It might even be a good thing not to monitor your audience (if you’re not interested in making money from advertisements). It’s like dieting without a scale: the depression of not losing weight can easily outweigh (har har) the elation of losing a couple pounds.

So, that’s my honest take on starting a blog from scratch. Do it because you like it and don’t assume you don’t like it because you have no idea what you’re doing. Really put yourself into it, find your voice, and screw what others are doing. Then, make sure the most amount of people know about what you’re doing in ways that are sustainable for your life.

Good luck! Come find me on Facebook or Twitter if you want to chat some more

Introduction

Which is harder to do: using technology or figuring out what technology you should be using? This question is perfectly relative to each person who approaches it and, in the end, it doesn’t really matter how difficult or easy something is if you truly want to get it done.

The reason to ask yourself this question (repeatedly) is to make sure that the time you invest in learning new things goes to good use. If you like learning how to use things and do it quickly then maybe more time should be spent picking things up, playing with them, and deciding whether or not to use them. If, like most of us, you have limited time and want to simplify your daily life, it’s time to make a Technology Taming Plan.

How does one go about making one of these plans? The process goes like this: figure out what your goal is (gain more eyeballs on your website, sell more products, better connect with people), choose your methods for getting that done (re-design the site, start a blog, start networking on-line), and then pick the best tools for getting it all done. The key is to take each step by itself and not move to the next until you’ve completed the preceding one. This is the best way (that I know of) to make sure you don’t get bogged down in logins to site you don’t use, applications that take up hard drive space, and electronics that sit unused.

I’m new to all of this… how will this post help me?

We all have problems with getting done what needs to be done. Sometimes the problem is a lack of motivation but that’s not always the whole story. It’s hard to dig right in without a plan of action or a place to start. It’s hard to clean your house when everything is a mess and you’re not sure what to tackle first. The same goes for moving your business, career, or personal life forward. If you know you want to make a change but you’re not sure of the first step to make, it’s very important to be clear about what you want to do and be aware of the tools out there that can help you do this. The implements can appear to outweigh the opportunities but this is not the case. Having a plan and taking specific action will always move you in the right direction (as long as you know what that direction is).

I’ll show you how to figure out your goal, think about ways to achieve it, then find the tools to get it all done. Of course, this is just a brief overview; if you need more in-depth help, talk to me!

Step 1 - What do you want to do?

Just like any endeavor in life, having an outcome in mind is the very important first step in progression. Whether you reach that outcome or not is not important but having one in the beginning is. Having a goal to point your effort towards gives important direction to everything you do. It also serves to keep you focused on the reason WHY you’re working so damn hard. Going to college is very difficult if you’re not sure what you want to do with what you’ll have at the end. Putting 100% into your work is very difficult if you don’t care where you’re going. Having a successful business, practice, or freelance operation is impossible if you’re not clear on what you want to accomplish.

The same goes for properly using the technology around you. If you buy a Blackberry but you don’t know what you’re going to do with it or why you need it, you’ll probably just end up making calls on it. This is fine but you chose the wrong tool for the job. If all you were going to do was make calls, you probably don’t need more than about 16 buttons and a 2×2″ screen. If, on the other hand, getting email, having access to the web, and keeping a detailed calendar is essential for what you do then the investment was a good idea and so is the time you will take to learn the functionality.

But even that is jumping a bit ahead of ourselves. The first thing to do is to evaluate where you are and where you want to go. Because it’s going to be difficult for me to generalize this, let me give a few examples using clients that I have.

You’re an artist

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that being an artist these days is a lot harder than it was not too long ago. Though, ostensibly, this country is the land of the free, it’s still not all that easy to blaze your own path and do your own thing. The expectation out there is “get money” and if you’re not chasing that then what, exactly, are you doing?

The artists that I help don’t seem to be affected so much by this sociological construct but they still want more work than they are getting right now. So, we talk about expanding into new markets. The first thing that needs to get nailed down is literally what they want to accomplish in the end.

One thing everyone on the internet wants to do is to be more visible on search engines; this includes artists. Putting your art on a website is tough, partially because it’s hard to search for particular images (if they are not tagged properly) and partially because art doesn’t have to always lend itself to a long description (making it even harder to find). This, however, is a great first step. The goal is “get better search ratings in the major search engines.” Congrats, that’s a goal! You’re not seeing enough people from the internet, you’re not getting as many hits as you think you should, and you’d like to improve that.

Another thing I hear from artists is that they want to teach more people and lead more classes. More students means more tuition and more tuition means the bills are getting paid. This is another perfectly legitimate goal, “enroll more paying students in my classes.” You’re teaching 10, you have space for 15 so you want to boost enrollment by 50%. Or you teach one-on-one three times a week, you’d like to do it 5 times a week to fill up your time. Every time you talk to someone, hand out a card, send out an email, or take any step forward, think about asses in seats and you’ll stay on target.

You’re a freelance financial consultant

I know a very successful freelance financial consultant who does not have a web presence of any kind. He’s neck-deep in phones, computers, printers, spreadsheets, and digitized income statements but he doesn’t have anything out there that grabs people on the internet. There’s nothing wrong with what he’s doing because he has more business than he can handle. But let’s say he started to train people to do some of what he does. Now, he has employees who are doing the less-sensitive work and he’s freed up to work with the more important clients. Since the number of people he can hire is basically infinite, his income potential is not being realized by being strictly word-of-mouth.

So, this consultant decides he wants to “find qualified people that I can train to handle certain parts of my business.” This is an ambitious, well-directed goal that, at worst, will make you meet a few new people and really figure out if this is the direction you want to go. You’re starting out working 16 hours a day and you’d like to maintain your income but only work 10. Or, you can hardly keep up with what you’ve got and need help keeping it all straight. You want to expand but you need the right people. This is a great place to start.

"People" by PieterMusterd on Flickr

Now that you’ve found a few junior accountants to take some of the math off of your hands, you want to find businesses that need your help. You want to “discover specific potential clients who need your expertise.” You work with 100 businesses and you want 300 in your Rolodex. You helped sell 5 businesses last year, this year you want to triple that. You know exactly where you’re at now and you have a clear idea of where you want to be soon.

In addition to building your business, you’re going to need to know what other people are doing as well. You want a unique and useful offering for people to come to you and start buying what you have. You want to price competitively (or contrastingly) and make sure that you’re not missing the boat on something else. You need to “collect good competitive intelligence to shape your offerings.”

Get it?

Don’t bite off too much at this stage because you’re just going to end up frustrated. At the same time, don’t limit yourself because you’re not exactly sure how to get to where you’re going.

You need to walk a fine line between vagueness and specificity to get this step right. Be vague enough so that you’re not naming actual things you’re going to be doing (yet) but be specific enough so the goal doesn’t end up “make more money.” You want the direction in place so the next step, choosing a path, is easier.

Oh and WRITE THESE DOWN, write them all down regardless of what came out of your brainstorming. If you don’t have these on paper, you’re not going anywhere. It sounds a bit silly but this reminder will help you keep your eyes on the prize and your nose to the grindstone. It’s also very important for focusing on what you need to do.

By the way, try to keep the list short. I’d recommend two or three items but, to be honest, that’s a bit hypocritical because I have four of them:

• More online connections (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter)
• Bump up my monthly freelance income to a certain amount
• Add more people to which I can subcontract work
• Add more/better sites to my portfolio

Remember, the more of these you have, the worse your focus will be on each one. It might be better to take one or two on at a time and, when they get to a good level, move on to the next. But, again, that’s me giving advice without taking it! :)

Step 2 - How are you going to do it?

You have the toughest step out of the way, choosing the outcome. Now let’s start thinking about how this outcome will come about. I’ll use the examples from the previous section.

“Get better search ratings in the major search engines”

Everyone wants better search ratings but how do we go about getting them? Spend 5 minutes reading on the subject and you’ll realize that getting better ratings comes down to three things:

1. Keywords (choosing them and using them)
2. Incoming links (sites that have a direct link to you…more popular sites and more reputable sites are always better)
3. Content following Seth’s 3U’s: useful, unique, and updated.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? It is simple but it isn’t easy.

So, our goal is in mind, we (hopefully) are aware what our situation is right now, what’s next? Now, we pick apart the paths we can take to determine the way forward. I’ll start with the first one, keywords. If you don’t know what I mean when I say “targeted keywords” then it’s time to spend some time on Google (or call me). What you will figure out is that you need to choose some keywords that describe your offering and always use those in your writing. There’s your first how from this goal, “choose the best keywords for what I do and use them in my content.” We’re not sure exactly how to pick them or the best way to write about them but we’ve got an action to take and we’ve got the reason why.

Let’s also say that you decide to boost your incoming links. The only real way to do this is by creating good content and then getting people to read it and link to it. You’re going to need your keyword skills from above and you’ll need Useful, Unique, and Updated content. You’re also going to need people online with websites that want to link to you. You need to “make yourself known in the online world and create something that people want and/or need.” Again, you’re not certain how but you know what and why now.

“Collect good competitive intelligence to shape your offerings”

Competitive intelligence is a funny thing. Not enough of it and you risk being in the dark, overcharging, and being generally uninformed. Too much of it and you might start cloning your competitors and end up a mushy, gray mix of all of them. You want to know what they’re doing but be careful what you wish for!

OK, so you want to know about your competitors and you promise to heed my warning. Now it’s time to think about what you want to know and how you’re going to get it. Let’s say you want to know who your direct competitors are and what kind of press they are getting. To do this, you’re going to need to understand the industry (if you don’t already) and keep a pulse on it. You want to “keep an eye on the industry at large, specifically who is playing and what they are announcing.”

Watching the industry change and progress while keeping your eye on the key players is an important for step, to be sure, but you want more than that. Maybe you’ve identified 1 or 2 or 3 specific companies, locally or otherwise, who are all competing with you for the same customer pool. It would be great to know what some of their clients (or former clients) have to say about what they offer. You want to network a bit and “find people with specific knowledge about your competitors.” You sneaky devil, you.

Get it?

We’re knocking out the critical parts of the Technology Taming plan and getting down to brass tacks with the first two. These two are conceptual and work together to make sure that when you start to look for solutions to your problems that you’re not choosing things that don’t get you to where you want to go.

What we did in Step 1 and Step 2 was take care of the “why” and the “what.” The why will keep you focused on what you’re doing, even if the road is a bit bumpy. The what keeps you on-point in finding your solution instead of trying everything out there. Maybe one of these “whats” aren’t going to get you what you want but, if you’re honest about your intentions and your objectives, the only thing left is to try out your predictions.

Step 3 - What tools are you going to use?

Now we get to the fun part!

This might be the step where you call someone like me to help you find and learn the tools you need to use to do the actions you planned out to accomplish the goals you’ve set. But, if you want to go it alone and discover the tools yourself, here are a few resources (besides plain-ole Google):

• Lifehacker.com: I was resistant to this site at first if only because they cover SO much ground and I was jealous. Eventually I realized that they were a great resource but left a lot of legwork to be done, which I like.
• Google Blog Search: This little tool is getting used more and more by me. Blogs can have great, timely, very palatable information and, more often than not, you’ll find one with the author’s opinion mixed in which can help to make decisions.
• Forums (like the Computer Community at VWVortex): Forums on the internet can be frustrating and time-sucking but, take it from me, they can be unbelievably useful. Ask the right question and you can start a firestorm but it’s the debates that can give you some of the best information. My advice is to join a general-purpose one and build your reputation there then milk it whenever possible!
• Yahoo Answers: I’ll be honest: there are some INANE conversation topics on this site (stay away from the Relationships section) but there are also some smart, talented people who patrol these boards and answer questions. Sign up and start to answer a few questions and watch your addiction grow as you get points for answering. Interesting idea for sure and a great place to learn what other people are doing.

So, let’s go through the actions that we chose for the goals we want to accomplish. Keep in mind, these are just suggestions. If you’ve tried these before or simply want more information, I invite you to research them a bit and post back here with what you find. Finding the right tool for the job is rarely as easy as it seems. Don’t stop at the first answer; keep researching until you find a few things you can work with.

“Choose the best keywords for what I do and use them in my content”

Keywords are a funny thing… so funny that I’m not going to go into really deep detail about them. The key (no pun intended), however, is choosing words that don’t have tons of competition but do have a lot of people searching for them.

The only place, in my mind, to start is the Google Keyword Tool. This handy page will help you figure out the best words to use in your articles, blog posts, and general content. Just type in a(several) word(s) or phrase(s), fill in the captcha, and, behold, your list of terms. What this tool does is collect synonyms of the word you typed and then tells you what the competition is, how often it was search for, and what the search volume looks like on average. What this tells you (succinctly) is how hard it is to rank for the keyword (competition), how many people search for that term (value), and the growth rate (value versus average). Look for low competition, high value, and growth or stability instead of decrease.

Once you pick a few of the right keywords, start including them in your content (organically) and keep track of your website analytics or incoming calls/sales to see if the change made a difference.

“Make yourself known in the online world and create something that people want and/or need“

Wow, that’s a big one isn’t it?

Plain and simple, the only way to do this properly is to start at the bottom and build your on-line reputation. This is a tough thing to do and, trust me, if you don’t enjoy it AND see a palpable benefit, you will never continue the effort needed.

Making yourself known is one half of the equation. There are seemingly infinite ways to gain some ground on this but here is what I’ve been doing:

• Started a blog. Read other blogs, commented on them, linked to my blog.
• Signed up for Facebook (I know a lot of people on there anyways). Signed up for Twitter (took a while to build any kind of following on there… try following others). Linked the two together.
• Signed up for LinkedIn. built a great profile, recommended many former co-workers. Now, their counter-recommendations act as testimonials on this site.
• Signed up and spend some time on a few different forums. I try to give at least as much as I ask for.
• Stay in touch with many people

Everything on that list is an action I would be doing anyway but, because I have a whole online persona/profile to maintain, I do it with even more gusto.

Building an online network is mostly a slow process unless you’re already established somewhere and just missed the internet boat for a while. I’ve found it very frustrating for a while but, as time goes on, it’s very enjoyable, allows me to meet a lot of new people, and expose myself to many more projects and collaborators. In the end, it’s essential.

Creating something that people want and/or need is a whole other thing. To be honest, sometimes this is like starting a business with every step forward. I’ll be honest: I certainly haven’t figured out the silver bullet here though it seems like others have. Here are my thoughts on the matter:

• Use the keyword tool above and a blog
• Use Google Trends and Google News to see what’s growing out there. If you’re game, try to jump onto a pop culture or fashion trend (especially if you’re in the industry). If you’ve been gathering your network and can move fast, it shouldn’t be too hard.
• Two words: viral video. Get yourself on Youtube with something off the wall.

Weak list for sure but I can’t help you TOO much…  I need to keep some stuff for myself, right?

Honestly, this is just a matter of putting yourself and your talent out there any way you can. Do what you love and do what you’re good at then do it how only you can do it and you’ll hit the moon in no time.

“Keep an eye on the industry at large, specifically who is playing and what they are announcing“

You need to sign up for Google Reader and get your RSS on, for sure. Use Google Blog Search and look for words that describe your industry, look for blogs that get at least a few comments a day, make sure you like what the author puts out, then subscribe. Now, go to Google News and search a relevant phrase. Is this information that you’d like to see on a regular basis? On the left, there is a tiny “RSS” link you can click. Do that and add this subscription to your Reader as well. Repeat until you have a few solid streams.

Find at least ten blogs to sign up for and read them in Google Reader at least a couple times a week. Feeling good? Now take it a step farther:

• Sign up at Technorati and look for blogs in your segment with good authority.
• Sign up at Digg and keep an eye on stories in an appropriate category.
• Learn how to use Yahoo Pipes (look for an intro post soon). This is advanced-level.

Get it?

It’s all about finding the right tools for the job. Search them out, try a few, and switch it up if they don’t work for you. There are millions of ways to get information, thousands of pages that can help you do what you want, and just as many applications that can help you out. Keep your eyes open and your fingers moving!