Would you be interested in a project that provides you with hands-on business development assistance?

The Beyond Blogging Project is a program designed to assist bloggers with business development strategies that can make a tremendous difference in where you are today and where you’re going in the future.

As a Founding Member of the Beyond Blogging Project I can tell you that this program is unlike any other available today. This is not a blogging course, teaching you how to write content and load WordPress plugins. This is all about focusing on your business ideas and developing strategies to move forward, developing a lifestyle that you envision. It’s about hard work and the need to take action upon what you learn.

Listen, people are always happy to sell you on those 3-hour workdays while living in paradise and yes, that does happen occasionally. But the truth of the matter is this, many have not told you about the years they worked 15 and 18 hour days to reach their ultimate goals. There are no magic bullets or industry secrets when it comes to building an online business. It boils down to hard work, period!

Still interested in becoming a member of a premier blog training program for entrepreneurs and small businesses?

Would you like to network with other serious entrepreneurs and business-minded people?

Check out the Beyond Blogging Project, where once you become a member, you will have lifetime access to all of the ever-growing library of content, a business forum where ideas are fleshed out and developed, access to industry leaders like Mike Cliffe-Jones and Nathan Hangen, the project’s founders, and many of the blogging world’s top business leaders.

The access in and of itself is invaluable, as this serves as a life-time consultancy service. So why continue to stumble around trying to first, identify all of the necessary pieces, then second, assemble them in a way to make your business successful?

At the beyond Blogging Project we address your business specifically to see how best to move things in the right direction.

Ready to take the plunge?

The beyond Blogging Project is your source for getting to the next level.

I hope to see you on the inside. Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have regarding this premier business development program.

Let take this thing Beyond Blogging!

The Online Business Blog will continue to be a part of my online life, serving as an outpost and resource, but I am shifting my home base to Jimi Jones Dot Com where I will continue to help new bloggers and entrepreneurs get off to a great start and build their online businesses.

Come on over to the new camp where we will continue to share the online experience and build a better tomorrow. I am excited about what lies ahead in the blogging community and I hope you are as well.

Follow this link to Jimi Jones Dot Com and we will see you on the other side.

Like most bloggers and entrepreneurs, I have quite a few email accounts set-up for various purposes. I set out to get all of them cleaned up by the end of 2009 but life, as often happens, got in the way.

The next thing I know the New Year had arrived and I had hardly started on this project, which was quite substantial.

I use Gmail for most of my business accounts because it’s free, easy to use, and you get tons of storage space (7.2 Gigs) for each account. Now you know how the email thing goes, you get so many during the course of the day that you find yourself cherry-picking the really high priority and important ones first, leaving the others to get back to a little later.

The fact that I had so many emails to get back to began to bother me and it had gotten to a point where I knew I had to do something. It is a new year and this was gnawing at me, so drastic action had to be taken.

So I rearranged my normal work schedule to spend the required hours upon hours each day to clear away this backlog from my inbox, my mind and my life. I can tell you that I am now so refreshed and ready to rock and roll for 2010 that I just had to write this post about the experience.

This may sound like a small thing but when you have multiple accounts that accumulate 20 to 40 emails daily, and each account has an inbox with numbers in the thousands, let’s be honest, this **** is out of hand.

This situation has caused me to add another goal for 2010, and that is to implement a highly efficient email management system to avoid recurrence.

My old system was to set aside blocks of time to keep the numbers manageable but obviously I flubbed at that along the way.

This is where you can help me out.

What systems or techniques do you find most effective for managing your email?

Yeah I know, no system will help me if I fail to read them in the first place, but the sheer numbers had overwhelmed my efforts.

If you would kindly leave me some suggestions in the comments section, it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

To get right to the point – YES! I actually believe that there is no bad time to start a business if that is what you desire, just get started and build it over time to what you want it to be.

Some general thoughts

It’s been a bumpy two years (2008 – 2009) for the global economy, as you no doubt have heard from the constant parade of talking heads on the daily blues news.

History has once again repeated itself and the cycle will be complete when the economy stabilizes and moves more consistently toward the positive.

This of course will not happen until the entrepreneurs of the world join forces and lead the way back, as has happened so many times before.

You see, economic prosperity never started with Dow Jones on Wall Street, but with Sam Jones on Main Street. Long before there were large corporations there were small businesses, started and operated by entrepreneurs who saw a need and decided to fill it.

History has shown us that whenever times got tough and there was economic uncertainty, people began to look within, grabbing hold of that creative spirit and finding a way to make ends meet. Simply put, when jobs dried up they made their own.

We are witnessing that very same thing today, as difficult times once again provide a necessity to create opportunities.

Today’s internet is loaded with opportunities as witnessed by the thousands of blog launches that occur daily. For the first time in history the average business person can compete with large multinational corporations since the startup fee for an online business is well within the reach of most.

As a business owner, you can reach as many people online as the large corporations through the smart use of social media. This leveling of the playing field positions you to carve out a niche.

The internet has exploded

In the year 2000, there were 360 million people on the internet, according to InternetWorldStats.com. Today there are 1.7 billion global users and growing. The sheer numbers tell you that opportunities are everywhere.

The importance of working together

Back in the day shopkeepers all worked together and looked out for one another for the betterment of the entire community. Today’s business climate is no different, with the exception of those who only care about themselves and are missing the larger picture.

This approach increases the chances for additional opportunities like joint ventures and project collaborations that otherwise may be more difficult to find individually. Working together within a community of bloggers brings about a collective knowledge that benefits everyone involved.

Conclusion

There has never been a better time to launch an online business. With a blogging education, a business plan and a strong desire to reach your goals the end result is totally in your control.

I would remove the curiosity of what might or could be and begin the journey of building your online enterprise.

This is what I find so attractive about being an internet entrepreneur and operating an online business. With the internet, you have the power to create that dream lifestyle; it is only a matter of taking action and working hard to reach your goals.

I do not mean to oversimplify this because it is not easy to accomplish, but it is without a doubt, a strong possibility for anyone who applies themselves and follows a proven business model like the many used by other successful entrepreneurs.

For me, I made but one resolution this year, and that was to continue to work hard, following the 2-year plan I laid out last year. This plan is allowing me to create the lifestyle I want and I am quite excited about what lies ahead in this year of 2010.

Most of us live and work the well worn corporate lifestyle where we graduate from college, get a job and trade time for money for the next 4 or 5 decades until we retire, all the while hoping that some semblance of a decent pension will await us when it is all said and done.

That particular lifestyle model leaves too much of your future in the hands of corporations who have their best interest in heart, not necessarily yours. Sure a good corporate job can provide you with all of the financial security you want, but the continuance of this income is out of your control and you are not free to do as you wish.

The times have changed and businesses have changed as well, trimming retirement and compensation packages with slim-fast approaches, leaving the dedicated worker to wonder what became of their dreams.

This is why taking charge of your own future is so important and this is where the internet provides huge opportunities for you to do so.

I made a conscious decision to design my own lifestyle and work a plan that will allow me to accomplish my goals. As an internet entrepreneur I can build and operate my business from anyplace that has internet access.

Some find this type of decision bold while others find it to be fool hearty, but one thing is for certain. Designing your own lifestyle means that you have chosen to buck the old system and become a non-conformist. It is a choice to get out of the box of what is viewed as “normal work behavior” in society.

I have had some great jobs over the years and was always fairly well paid, but when you begin to see the unraveling of the corporate structure as we have known it, you wonder what the future really holds for you.

Watching your 401Ks and real estate holdings decline in value, while corporate executives escape with huge bonuses for running companies into the ground should give you reason to pause and evaluate your long-term well being.

If my future was going to be that uncertain I was not going to just sit around and hope for the best, I was going to do something about it.

The allure of the comfort zone

It is human nature to want to stay in a place of perceived safety and comfort. Often times we find comfort in doing exactly what everyone else is doing. It is the safety in numbers mentality. You know, it must be the thing to do because everyone else is doing it, right?

We are naturally attracted to these behavior patterns.

Somewhere along life’s highway I came to realize that this can sometimes work against you in the long-term.

Consider this; the most successful among society did not reach that level of success by staying in their comfort zones. They were people who took some risk and worked hard to design the lifestyle they truly wanted.

Reaching your dreams

While watching others and studying how they have reached success, it became quite apparent that it is a matter of laying out your dream, developing a plan and taking actions that will lead you toward that dream.

Your plan must include the steps required to reach the goal, and then break each of those steps down into smaller tasks. In the end, you will likely have a very long and detailed plan, but taking action on each item listed, checking it off and moving on to the next will eventually get you to your destination.

Conclusion

If you have determined to blog your way to your dreams you must consider your blog to be a business and operate it as such. Just like any offline business, it will take time to build and grow into what you have envisioned it to be. Continue to work hard, avoid distractions that do not fit into your plan and make 2010 the year that you find the freedom to design the lifestyle that you have dreamed about.

Throughout this year, I will be blogging about this very process and the progressions of my overall plan as I move forward.

I hope you join me as the journey unfolds, sharing the experience and moving toward your own desires.

What have you envisioned as your future lifestyle?

Have you dared to dream?

Here is to a highly productive 2010.

Keep Blogging!

Whether you set out to build a brand or not, you are building one by simply being online. People will form perceptions of you regardless, so why not have an influence on what those perceptions will be?
Below I have listed 9 tips to help you in 2010 and beyond. Why 9 and not 10? I like odd numbers, they draw more attention.  :-)

1. Establish your identity from day one. Select a nice passport style photo of yourself and use it continuously. This will become your brand and bring instant recognition of you as people become accustomed to this image.
2. Select a niche and become an authority on your chosen topic. You want to become the go-to source for answers on the topic you cover. Niche selection can sometimes require more time than you would like, but it is important to fully research your topic to avoid overwhelming competition.
3. Develop a business or marketing plan, something that will get you from A to your destination. Operating an online business is too difficult to simply feel your way. You will be operating in the blind, which will only lead to failure.
4. Become an outstanding communicator of your message. You must deliver your message in an easy to understand manner through written or audio content. Write and speak clearly and conversationally.
5. Be a contributor. Always be willing to lend a helping hand and contribute to the success of others. When others are successful they will reach out to you as well, so you are really helping yourself by helping them. This establishes valuable working relationships that that build a strong network of like-minded individuals.
6. Maintain a presence everywhere. Your readers or followers are all over the internet, and you must have a presence in many places to gain wide exposure, drawing more and more readers to your blog. Establish outpost in all of the popular hangouts on the net and maintain them regularly. Only establish what you can reasonably maintain to avoid the appearance of outdated or abandoned profiles.
7. Join a group. You will be using many social media sites and tools, so be sociable. The lone ranger approach can leave an impression of you being unapproachable or standoffish. Build a network of friends and associates, you will find the support and camaraderie to be invaluable.
8. Be authentic when interacting with others. No one likes a phony and just because you are behind that monitor, do not make the mistake of thinking that people cannot pick up on those vibes. Admit to some mistakes and let others know that you are like them, less than perfect. The respect gained by being you cannot be substituted in any way.
9. Always be positive. A positive attitude rubs off on others and makes the entire online experience what it should be. Sure, there will be times when someone brings negativity to the fore, but let them corner the market on that for themselves.

Bonus tip: Remain humble, no matter your level of success. Keep in mind that it will be your readers and followers who will make you a success and they should be rewarded for supporting your efforts.

Life online is no different than life offline, people are to be treated with respect and you will get what you give.

I enjoy blogging and all that it brings to my life. The large numbers of people I have met has made this year a very positive experience and I look forward to the continuance of the online lifestyle for many years to come.

Keep Blogging!

TwitterFeed

During the past couple of weeks I was twice asked about how to turn off a Twitter feed. This is a handy feature that I use throughout the year, as there are times when you do not want every post to be Tweeted out.

Take this Holiday season for instance. I prefer to personally send out good wishes to my friends and followers and would never allow automation to cheapen the message. Since I had a Holiday greeting up for those who came by, I did not want this to enter the feed as it just feels phony to me. Anyhow…

I thought I would write this quick post for others who may want to use this feature and are unaware of how to pause it.

The process is simple, but not apparent from the feed dashboard of TwitterFeed.

After logging in and landing on the feed dashboard screen you will see and option at the bottom right to “switch to plain list view”. Click the option and end up here.

Clicking the toggle switch under “Actions” will render the feed “inactive” until such time that you return and reactivate the feed.

That’s it, hope this helps.

Keep Blogging!

I’ve been using this for most of the year now and find it a really handy tool for promoting. You must have a Facebook account to use this and here is what you do.

For the sake of this post, I’ve set up a secondary account to illustrate how this works. FB can be a little fickle at times, so I did not want to disturb my settings.

Go to NetworkedBlogs.com and add your blog to the application. You will sign-in using your FB credentials and this will in turn add the application to your FB account.

Once inside you will be asked to select a few blogs to follow. After the selection process (optional) you will find a link to the NetworkedBlogs home page. You can add or delete blogs at any time, so do not worry over selections too much at this point.

Click the “Register a new blog” button near the top right of the page. Answer a few questions, follow the instructions and find yourself on the verification of ownership page, where there are two options.

1. Ask friends to verify you (which takes time)
2. Use the Facebook widget (enter some code into your blog site)

Here you can choose to install a widget in the right sidebar or a name badge is available for WordPress.com users. This can be removed immediately after verification if you desire.

Installing the widget is a simple cut and paste operation. Within your WordPress Dashboard, you will drag a text widget to your right sidebar and paste in the code provided by NetworkedBlogs. Code shy? Have someone do this for you or go with option 1 above.

Once installed, you will return to the NetworkedBlogs page and click the “verify widget” button.

If done properly you will see the image below.

Click  “Next” and you are all set. Go back to your blog and remove the widget if you choose, it is no longer a requirement. Or you can leave it in place so that your readers may follow your blog from the site widget itself. This is a nice way to build a community, as each new follower’s image will appear in the widget, giving each of them a little play as well.

Inside of your FB application, click on the “Applications” tab at the lower left of the page, then click on “NetworkedBlogs”. The application tab will open, showing a long list of apps. I’ve cropped the image below to only show what matters here.

This will land you on the NetworkedBlogs home page within Facebook. Click on the “Profile” link.

Once on your profile page look down the page a bit and find “Blogs I Author” and click on the title of your blog, which takes you to a page similar to this.

Now click on the “Pull Now” link and you can import your latest post or series of posts. Once they are imported, you will have the option to publish them and share them with your friends or the world, depending on how you have your privacy settings configured.

This process can be automated but I prefer this manual method because I do not want every single post entered into the news stream of FB. Doing it this way keeps me in control of what gets posted and when that post occurs.

Using NetworkedBlogs opens another wide avenue of networking opportunities for you. The blogs and bloggers discovered will broaden your knowledge base and expose your blog to more eyes, which translates into more traffic.

Keep Blogging!

If you would like to follow this blog on NetworkedBlogs simply click here. I thank you in advance.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Why reinvent the wheel or pay for lessons that have already been paid for by the pros?

I’ve had the privilege of reading a report “2010 and Beyond – The Truth About Blogging In The Next Decade” and can tell you that you really need to get your hands on a copy if you plan to find your success sooner rather than later.

This report provides insight into what has worked in the past and why these same techniques may not work as well in the future. The blogging landscape is changing and if you fail to change with it, you may be just another also-ran. No need stumbling around in hopes of finding the right pathway to success.

Begin the process of planning for the future now, by reading this report and understanding where blogging has been, where it is today and where this will go in the future.

You can grab your free copy at Beyond Blogging.

Now ask yourself this question, are you building a business or just a blog?

Pick up your free copy of this report and get into the proper mindset for developing your future.

This report sets the tone, go grab your copy now at Beyond blogging.

As I travel around the internet I see so many talented up and coming bloggers out there. But talent alone is not enough, you’ll need a plan, unless you’re just building a blog.

Your future starts now, step into it on the right foot and find the success you seek.

Keep Blogging!

Some of your best stuff is mixed in back in those double-digit pages of times gone by and you should reach back there, dust off a few and recycle them.

Now this has nothing to do with keeping fresh content on your blog’s front page but rather, providing an opportunity for others to see and enjoy some of your past work.

Much like a library, there are some great books on the shelf but we don’t stop reading them because they were written some time ago.

Most blog posts see the light of day for a short period of time before fresh content cycles them farther and farther back into your blog.

A win-win situation is created by sharing some past posts with others and gaining some traffic in the process.

How this can boost your traffic

• Twitter – For some time now I have Tweeted out links to older posts a couple of times weekly. Often times this results in new comments on old posts and the eventual landing of the visitor on the home page where they will read the current post. Some of these readers have become regulars.
• Facebook
• FriendFeed
• BlogEngage

I won’t list every site here but the general idea is to recycle an old post once a week or so in various outpost that lead back to your blog.

Be judicious about it so people don’t get the impression that you have nothing fresh and new and be very selective about the older post that you put out there. These will have to be relevant and valuable as if they were written today.

This is a good strategy and I can tell you that it really works to increase your traffic. Test a post or two on a seldom visited outpost and see the results for yourself.

The amount of traffic received will depend on many factors, not the least of which will be the quality of the post and the people who see it at the time the link is dropped. This is why catchy titles are so important.

Will the floodgates open? Of course not, but every trickle of traffic adds to the cumulative effect of all inbound visitors.

So give it a shot, dust off some of those great posts that had such a short shelf life. This is another tool that is only sitting in the archive dormant. Breathe a little new life into them.

Recycle and keep blogging!