Karim’s posterous

Great article from Copy blogger: http://www.copyblogger.com/online-marketing-success/

1. Take Action

Success is built on lots of small steps. Start taking them. You've built this up in your head to be 1,000 times harder than it is. The fact that you have historically been terrible at getting stuff done is not relevant at all.

2. Have A Plan

If you want to make a million dollars online, start with a project to make $10. Figure that out, then scale it. It sounds simplistic and even silly, but it works.

 

3. Your Secret Sauce Is You

You have a unique view of your market's problems. You have a unique set of techniques and approaches to solve those problems. You have a unique set of experiences to put the problems in a fresh light. Share those unique perspectives in your content

Read Full artcle: http://www.copyblogger.com/online-marketing-success/

Some great points by Chris, but the interviewer seems bored!

http://blogs.news.sky.com/techtalk/Post:b05205fa-d81f-4e95-afac-f94c6231877a

Seth Godin highlights the importance of the 'intangibles' when providing value in your services/products. He recommends some tactics to embrace these:

• Call potential clients before they know they need you - I've seen this tactic in practice and it's very effective
• Be genuinely enthusiastic 
• Be overwhelmingly faster than the other guys
• Focus and personal service
  
• Be generous - Give and ye shall receive
  
• Resolve errors gracefully
• Peer pressure. Focus on making connections across your network - I've seen this in action a few times "Oh Company X used this guy, he was awesome, we need to get him ASAP"
• Give them hope - this was probably the least clear point for me, I interpreted it more as selling the big picture, the strategy, not just the tactic

Read the full post: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/08/the-intangibles.html

Chris Brogan outlines 100 useful and logical steps to help develop your personal brand, here are a couple of my favourite tactics:

• Home base is your blog/website. Not everyone needs a blog. But most people who want to develop a personal brand do.
• Create new content regularly. If not daily, then at least three times a week.
• Write brief pieces with lots of visual breaks for people to absorb.
• Commenting on other people's blogs builds awareness fast.
• Remember that community and marketplace are two different things.
• Have simple, useful, crisp business cards to share. Always.
• Have a very brief introduction / elevator pitch and practice it often.
• Don't seek business relationships right off. Instead, seek areas of shared interest.
• Never doubt that you are worth it.
• Promote others even more than you promote yourself
• Sometimes, just doing really good work is worthy of others promoting you. Try it.

Read the full list: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/100-personal-branding-tactics-using-social-media/

A very juicy secret, one that will turn an ordinary "Choice" cut of steak into a gucci "Prime" cut....

http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/08/28/how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks/

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine....

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html

from http://businessguysonbusinesstrips.com

Simon says....

Listening to music is as important as playing music. Doing something is more important than speaking about it.

http://generousalphabet.org/journal/looking-listening-doing

http://burrowburrow.com/robots.html

Ever since we're kids we're told to do this and not do that. To go to bed early, to finish the food on our plate, to not jump up and down, to not shout, to not fight. Even as we get older people are constantly telling us what to study, which university to go to (or not go to) and even which person we can and can't marry (he/she's just not good enough for you). Of course then there's the work place, where our boss and their boss is constantly telling us what to do, when to turn up, when to go home, when we can eat, what to spend 90% of our day doing. It's all pretty ridiculous if you think about it. We get caught up in a way of living where our decisions are made for us, and our daily routine is imposed on us.

With this being the typical person's life in a typical western industrialised nation. Is it any wonder that we're shit at making decisions? We never get to make any, we never get to practice this fine art. Look around you, look at your company, all the bureaucracy is there because no one has the ability to make decisions. Is it down to a lack of balls? Maybe. But I think it's more to do with the fact that we never get to practice making choices in our life, from when we're kids to our transitionary years in higher education to the workplace. Heck you even see this decision-paralysis in the dating world (where do you want to go to eat tonight honey? What movie do you want to watch? etc). Decision-paralysis is all around us. So how do we combat it? I think the best way is to start making direct, unambiguous decisions. Start with small ones every single day and get on to the bigger ones. Sure you make screw up, but atleast you know it was your choice.