COMMENTS ON SMALL BUSINESS PODCASTS

Please listen to the comments on the 100 Best Small Business Podcasts compilation. I have used the Cinch iPhone application this time.

MIDWEEK WRAP 9

Please check out the following:

• 3/3 Groundhog Day Review by Stephen Smith.
• 100 Best Small Business Podcasts 2010 by Martin Lindeskog.

Three Keywords for Bloggers in 2010

The three keywords idea sparked my interest in actually sitting down and defining my keywords, which I went ahead and did, but recently I have been thinking about if there were three keywords that applied to all bloggers. Here is what I came up with ...

Value

It seems many more bloggers are coming into the field now with motivations to make money, become famous, get a better job. This is fine, and in fact I try to help people do those things, but if we go in with selfish motivations only then we will miss out on many of the things that make blogging so cool.

Therefore "value" has to be top of our minds. What are you giving, as well as taking back?

Community

Community leads on from the previous point. We have to serve, include, engage and most of all respect our community.

Few blogs exist in a vacuum, and unlike a broadcast medium, our audience does not just have to passively accept and consume, but they interact and are highly likely to be our peers as much as prospects.

So we have to have discussions, not talk down but across, and hold on to our values.

Balance

This might be a controversial one, as I know many bloggers love a good fight. It seems the snarkiness, attacks, and gossip are not going to go away, but at the same time there seems a growing vigilantism. I fully support people tracking down real bad guys, but I worry people are too willing to go on the attack now, and the consequences one day soon will be irreversible.

Before you go on the offensive, I think it serves everybody better to try and find both sides of a story, show some empathy, and consider your position.

Not only will you pay more respect to the people involved, it will also raise your respect in the eyes of your audience, or at the very least, might prevent you from having egg on your face.

What do you think?

About the author: Chris Garrett is a new media commentator and internet marketing coach living in the UK. You can find him regularly writing for clients such as Cogniview, the PDF to Excel People, and his own blog at chrisg.com

NEW REVOLUTION IN IRAN?

Here is an excerpt from Melik Kaylan's article, Iran On The Brink:

Iran's turning point might come this week or in a month when the Nawrouz (Iranian new year) celebrations kick in, and no amount of nuclear enrichment claims will change things in the long run. On Bahman or Revolution Day (Feb. 11) the regime appeared to have won the numbers game against protesters, having bribed and bused in street-loads of pro-government supporters and stifled opposition turnout. Even then, according to various sources, protests erupted in disparate neighborhoods and massively in provincial cities. State television had to dub away outbursts of anti-government chanting registered on tape during its own rallies. (Forbes, February 12, 2010.)

Do Not Read This

More cartoons by Cox & Forkum on Iran.

Related: My post, HELP IRAN ELECTION DOT COM.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Iran Tweets Engulf Twitter (blogs.wsj.com)

OPEN MIKE THREAD

Please listen to my open mike clip on workflow, worklife and workout. Please feel free to follow Meighan Berberich's tip and comment with your own audio clip.



Talking about open mic(rophone), tomorrow I will attend Unplugged Speeches™ by Stefan Engeseth of Detective Marketing. Jack Yan from New Zealand is entering the stage.

BHARGAVA BOOKMARK CLIP

I am starting a new podcast / audio clip series called "Bookmark Clip." I will read short excerpts from books. First clip is from Rohit Bhargava's book, Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get it Back, Foreword by Guy Kawasaki.

I am reading from chapter 2, The Accidental Spokesperson, pages 58 - 59, hardcover.

The Making Of Personality Not Included

View more documents from Rohit Bhargava.

AUDIO AND COPY

I have to chew Stephen Smith's post, Personal Kanban:

These Open Loops (unfinished actions or commitments, in GTD lingo) are a stressor, causing mental distress and reducing your motivation to actually get things done. (January 13, 2010, www.StephenPSmith.com)

For my new site (www.EgoSoleTrader.com), I will use a new WordPress theme framework. I will reread the following posts before I start with the site.

• 10 Web Site Musts: Building Business Class Web Sites by Ramon Ray.
• How to Make Your Homepage Copy 'Pop' by Lisa Barone.

I plan to start recording short audio clips and add them to my blog. I will use a service called Cinch cast. I learned about this service via a tweet message by Jill Foster. Please participate in the new poll and give me input on what kind of audio clips you are interested in listening to. (Scroll down the right column and go to the section, Pick Your Audio Topics.)

• Reading from books.
• FAQ
• Good things in life.
• Rant of the week.
• Open thread discussion.
• Other stuff...

Kirkwood #39 (Watch Me)

CAT FOOD

Morris the cat got a big container for his food as a X-mas present. He is contemplating about the pet industry trends for 2010...



Related: Michael Gold's post, Cat is Cat. What does your cat eat?

MIDWEEK 2 WRAP

Image via Wikipedia

I am sorry that I haven't been able to publish the blog carnival yet. I have to rethink the schedule in the future. I have been under the weather for about two weeks and "struggled" with a nasty cold, but I am feeling better now! :)

I will resume my blogging end of this week with a review of the first two weeks of the new year and an outlook for the future, talking about podcasting, my new site (EgoSoleTrader), "Three Good Things," etc. In the meantime, please check out the following:

• What’s the Tone of Your Blog Voice? by Tina Hilton.

• Friday Readership - New Year's Resolutions for 2010 by Michael "Nozbe" Sliwinski.

• The 7 Traits Of Highly Successful Bloggers by Dragos Florin Roua.

Related articles by Zemanta

• It's A Brand New Year, Enjoy These New Year's Messages! (smallbusinessbranding.com)

YEAR MMX

It is time to start the new year with a music mix by DJ Steve Boyett of Groovelectric:

The mix that starts the year needs to be optimistic, uplifting, forward-looking. It has to make you want to face the next 365 days. And since this one comes out on the first day of the year, it also has to make you want to face this day. (DJSteveBoy.com)

Cartoons by Andertoons

This first day of the year MMX, I have been contemplating about my three keywords for 2010. Here is an excerpt from Chris Brogan's post, My 3 Words for 2010:

What will your 3 words be? How do you choose?

Pick three words that help you the way a lighthouse helps a ship in a storm. Give yourself a word that guides you towards a powerful new opportunity, and that keeps you focused on what comes of this year. Use these words as starting points for tangible goals, SMART goals that can be measured and have dates to accomplish tasks by. These words sit above the actual goals, and set your guiding principles in place. (ChrisBrogan.com)

I will sit down and create a mindmap as Chris Brogan has done. I will use GoalEnforcer and Pulse Smartpen in order to capture my ideas and goals and put them on paper. I will listen to Dr. Edwin A. Locke's talk from 1985 (cassette tape), Setting Goals to Improve Your Life and Happiness and in the near future get his expanded course.

Here are my three keywords:

• Thingies - "Getting Things Done"
• Opportunities - "The Land of Opportunity"
• Plucking - "Pluck The Day"

I want to state that these keywords entails my personal goals and that I am making a contract with myself.

From Mark Anderson's post, Make a Contract with Yourself for New Year’s Resolutions:

I love a new year. It’s a fresh start, an opportunity to refocus my goals, a chance to try something new. And there’s party hats! (January 1, 2010, www.SmallBizTrends.com)

I want to add some illustrations to the above mentions words.


5...4...3...2...

I need to do the same thing as John Cox and "getting all my ducks in a row." The solution to an organized "zoo" is to get more structuralized. Here is Anita Campbell's comment on Mark Anderson's post:

Happy New Year, everyone! I am working on some of my resolutions right now:

(1) Clean up my desk, and dust my keyboard and monitor

(2) Empty my email inbox (or get as close to empty as possible)

(3) Organize my computer files!

What are your resolutions?



- Anita

I will continue with the evolution of EGO workspace during 2010... I will test out and write about different productivity tools, gadgets and "thingies," but the most important thing is to implement a productive methodology in my worklife.

How to start a to-do list? Go back to basics and use "Hipster PDA" index cards by Stiernholm Consulting.




Now when I have received material from the U.S. Department of State (Kentucky Consular Center) regarding the Diversity Immigrant Visa program for the year 2010, I will intensify my attention, energy and valuable time to the opportunities in the greatest country of the Western world...

From Allen Forkum's post, Stars and Barred:

As I've said here in the past, I advocate open immigration (not "open borders" as some leftists do). So I'm glad to see that The Wall Street Journal continues to strongly argue for open immigration. The editorial notes that immigration is a divisive issue for the right but also asserts that the "conservative silent majority is pro-immigration." In contrast, John Hawkins at Right Wing News recently conducted a poll of right-leaning blogs, and the results by a large majority favored a more restrictive approach to immigration. (July 11, 2006, www.CoxAndForkum.com)

Stars and Barred

As an inspiration, I will continue to read Immigrant, Inc. by Richard T. Herman & Robert L. Smith.
















Talking about inspiration, I have recently purchased several new books. They will give me fuel for my soul.



Who's Your City by Richard Florida, could help me in the quest to locate my place in the Melting Pot.

The following books could give me energy to seize the day:

• The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield.
• Meditation in a New York Minute: Super Calm for the Super Busy by Mark Thornton.

Kare Anderson wrote a tweet message that gave me a kick to start writing a diary...