Thursday, November 28, 2013

Friday, August 16, 2013

TIME TO REWIND WITH VINE

Have you charged your batteries during the summer? Are you ready to "rise to the top" and go back to work? I will kick-off my podcast interviews again, starting in September. Please stay tuned...

In the meantime, enjoy my latest Vine video clip with Robin the cat, exploring the roof top. I will submit this video to Friday Ark.



By the way: Do you think that Vine will create a compilation page for your vines sometime in the future, similar to your Instagram photos placed one page? Do you think that the short video clip content material is here to stay, or is it a fad going away?

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Jack Daniels Distillery Tours - Insider Perks Travel Video



If you can, go to Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House
Address: 295 Main St, Lynchburg, TN 37352
Phone:(931) 759-7394
Now run by Lynne Tolley, it embodies the legacy of Southern hospitality and charm. She is a fourth-generation Lynchburg native, whose family once owned and operated the Tolley and Eaton Distillery.
Lynne’s great-grandmother was Mr. Jack Daniel’s sister, so Lynne is actually the great-grandniece of Mr. Jack Daniel.

Ashland / Huntington West KOA - Insider Perks Camping Video

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

How To Create Repeat Business As A Business Owner





Every time you win a new client, you want to prove to him that you’re capable of doing the job; you want repeat orders—repeat business.

Repeat business is extremely beneficial and important. The main reason why repeat clients are so important is that they cost less than new customers.

A repeat client will come directly to you and patronize you depending on what you do or sell but new customers are often difficult to convert…

 They have to be drawn in, and this cost a lot of money.

If you don’t have that feeling you’ll get business from a client again, then here’re some things you may need to work on:

Offer Something Extra---Something Of Great Quality

If your blog is remembered as a stream of information with helpful tutorials and insightful stories, then users will return.

You won’t have to spend money to convert new prospects. But if your blog is remembered as a selling portal for purchasing one information product or the other, then users might not return.

 They might just say: ‘’This guy is in for our money; he has nothing to offer’’.

Provide Great Customer Support---Show That You Care…

A great way to provide fast, and transparent customer support is via your social pages.

Ensure you’ve your contact details displayed on your website as well as clear links to your social pages: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Google+; so users can submit any queries they have.

Don’t underrate your customers. Don’t make them feel like don’t matter, because they do.

 They matter, and they’re the reason why you’re still in business.

Support is something that’s often overlooked by most business owners… infact, this is why most businesses can never grow.

 Learn to reply to emails. Pay attention to your customers and they’ll reward you with ‘’fungolas’’… ($ $$)

Follow up---Build an Email List

If you really want more repeat business, then learn to follow up with previous clients.

If you sell a product, or provide a service to a client, cash the check and forget about him or her, you surely won’t get any business from that client again.

You’ve lost that customer---and that could cost you a lot on the long run.

This is where email list building comes in.

 Take a minute to send an email to a previous client; tell him you enjoyed working with him; that working with him meant a lot to you, and that you’re always available for him. 

Don’t just send out products in your email content. Provide value; insightful tips and tutorials. Don’t bombard your email list with too many ‘’sends’’. You’re a business owner not an ‘’email spammer’’.

Send emails to your prospect every 2 days and ensure you provide value in your email content. 

Build relationships with your clients, get to know them, and they’ll likely send more business your way.

 What are your thoughts and suggestions?

Do you’ve any tips to add to the ones above? I’ll really appreciate your thoughts in the comments section!



Looking for professional web content writers? Then give Daniel Adetunji a shot! 

He's a freelance writer, who provides content writing services to business owners... If you need content written for your business, don't hesitate to contact him.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Do You Really Need A Business Partner? Here’s Why It Rocks To Have A Business Partner




Two is better than one, because when one is down; the other will help him up.”
                      
                                                                                                                 The Scriptures
  
Today’s business world is filled with successful partnerships.

 Take a look at some of the successful brands and fortune 500 companies, and you’ll see that they’ll started out as partnerships.

 Examples of such firms include, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Youtube, Yahoo, Myspace,  et al!

If you’re planning on starting a new business, consider partnering with someone—a responsible person.

What Exactly Is Business Partnership?


For those that don’t know what business partnership is, here’s just a brief definition.

Partnership is simply an agreement between 2, 3, or more individuals to control a business!

It’s as simple as that!

For those looking to partner with a business owner, you should be willing and ready to invest your time and money to establish the partnership arrangement.

Here’re some factors that must be sorted out before establishing a partnership arrangement:

  • Who’ll finance the business?

  • The role of each partner ( sort it out)

  • What happens at the demise or absence of a partner?

  • What judicial steps should be taken when one partner wants to go his way ( there should be an arrangement for this).

However, it’s recommended for a lawyer or attorney to be contacted to write the partnership agreement. Kindly acknowledge this

If you manage a startup, or a new company, or you’re a business owner considering going into a partnership deal, then below are some vital reasons why it pays to collaborate with someone:

1. There’s Deep Commitment and Accountability


Running a business with somebody makes you accountable and responsible because you won’t want to let each other down—which will lead to more productivity.

Partnering with my friend, Frank was the best decision I ever made.

Our new firm (which is just 12 months plus) has moved from a non-tidy warehouse, to a well furnished and fully air conditioned 5 room offices with 9 employees!

Having a committed business owner makes you accountable for your business operations and finances.

 If you’re the careless type, having a partner will gear you to be more accountable because, you know that if you don’t play your role, your partner might scrutinize you.

2. It’d improve Your Skills


Working with another person will give you more time to learn new skills and improve your current skills.

You won’t have to waste time learning new things; rather, you’ll focus on improving your administrative skills.

Pro tip: if you already have a business partner, improve your administrative and technical skills. It’d help you go a long way in business

3. You’ll Have Someone To Cover Your ‘’Ass’’


I didn’t mean that… (just kidding).

The major reason why I partnered with Frank (a friend and business partner), was because, I wanted to co—own a business and also have the time to go on vacation with my dear wife and love kid , (Franca and James).

A business partner can cover you up when you’re away on a business trip, meeting, vacation, or short break.

Pro tip: someone should cover for another.

4. Having one or two business partner makes the work enhancing

5. It offers moral support and time for productive brainstorming. You’d have more time to brainstorm on how to move the business forward.

Partnership Take Away!


Were you inspired reading this post?

Do you have a business partner? What’ve you been able to achieve with your partner?

What’s your view on business partnership?

I’ll like to have your thoughts and views on this…..


AUTHOR BIO

Daniel Adetunji is a Web content writer, and Ghostwriter, currently for hire!

If you need quality web contents, articles, product reviews, or email newsletters, contact him.


Sunday, May 26, 2013

POWER FRIENDING IRL AND CYBERSPACE

During my birthday on May 25 I got 99 mentions on Facebook.


Is this an example of the power of new media? If you are interested in this topic, I recommend you to read Amber Mac's book, Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business. [Nota Bene: Amazon affiliate link. If you want to support my blogging and read a great book at the same time, please click the link and purchase Amber Mac's book.]

How many friends do you have on Facebook? I am getting close to 1,000 (power) friends... What's your take on the Dunbar's number and the social media tool called, Path?

In the evening, I got social and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant together with three of my friends that I am doing business (according to the trader principle) with:




After the dinner I went to Café Hammock, listening to Elecro Swing (jazz) music.

Electro swing jazz Music party.
Electro swing jazz Music party.

Here is my birthday thank-you note:

Monday, May 13, 2013

3 Reasons Why your Small Business Should Utilize Guest Blogging





Don’t you think you think you need a guest blogger who’ll be responsible for building backlinks and churning out guest posts for your company on a regularly basis?

Tell me, how much do you think you’ll make if you could atleast, generate 30,000 visitors to your small business blog in the next 6 months?

As a small business owner, you’ve certainly heard about guest blogging, but why haven’t you utilized it in your business?

This post is not meant to criticize you in anyway, rather, it’s meant to make you realize how much you can achieve through guest blogging.

Let me tell you something you don’t know:

I started out online with no connection, traffic, and in debt and in the space of 4—8 months, I was able to build a blog that averages atleast, 400 visitors daily.

Guest blogging made it possible!

If you’re reading this content (as a small business owner) I’d assume you don’t know anything about guest blogging; right?

For the sake of the people just hearing about it for the first time, let me briefly explain:

Guest blogging is the process of writing quality content for another blog with backlinks to your site. It’s that simple!

Guest blogging is effectively and helpful in the sense that,

  1. It helps to drive traffic
  2. It helps to generate leads
  3. It helps in establishing a strong online visibility
  4. It establishes your expertise
  5. It makes you more money!


Having experienced the results of guest blogging in my business, I guarantee that you’d experience tremendous growth if you utilize it.

Having spent more than 2 years as a professional writer and blogger, I’m proud to tell you that utilizing guest blogging in my business was the best decision I’ve ever made.

Guest blogging alone, brought in over 5,000 visitors to my blog within the first 5 months!
Think about what 5,000 visitors can do to your business? Imagine only 500 among these 5,000 buys a product worth over $50, that’s a whopping $25,000!

I owe my business and financial stability to guest blogging; and that’s one of the major reasons why I decided to share this detailed post with you.

Are you ready to roll with me on a guest blogging adventure?

Let’s move on! ( just kidding)

It builds Your Email List

Imagine what it feels like to wake up one morning only to find out that over 200 people are subscribed to your email list. Guest blogging is a sure way to make that happen.

I’ve written guest posts that  added over 50 people to my email list and I’ve written ones that added over 90 subscribers within 24 hours! If you’re on a low advertising budget, then you should give guest blogging a try!

If you can write quality guest posts for top A list blogs, be assured that you have the capability to add more than 50 subscribers your email list.

I’m not saying this to convince you; no! I’m only telling you what has worked for my business. I’m a professional guest blogger, and I run a guest blogging service so I know what works and what doesn’t work

Guest blogging alone has brought in more than 20,000 visitors in the past 7 months; think about what 20,000 visitors can do for your business.

Think about how much profits you’ll pull in if you can drive just 20,000 visitors to your blog in five months!

Pro tip: be strategic; only contribute to top A list blogs; that’s what works!


Guest Blogging Will Build Your Search Authority

For the past 1 year, I’ve written and published over, 289 guest posts for both myself and clients. I’ve written guest posts that have brought in over 200 visitors in 24 hours and I’ve also written ones that has brought as low as 10 visitors.

In fact, some of my blog posts rank on the first results of the search engines.

Think about it; imagine what it feels like to rank for a competitive keyword in your niche?

Imagine how much profits you’d pull in

Pro tip: Guest blogging will improgve your SEO and build your domain authority if you go about it the right way.


Guest Blogging Builds a Raving Social Media Fan Base

Do you know that guest blogging can help you get up to 40 Twitter followers within 24 hours?

During my initial days as a guest blogger, I only had about 10 Twitter followers but when I started contributing quality guest posts to top blogs in my niche, I grew my Twitter fan base to over 200 in 2 months!

Pro tip: if you want to utilize guest blogging just to build a fan base, then include a link in your posts and encourage others to follow you!

Your Business Is Important to Me!

If you’re planning on launching a guest post campaign or want to give guest blogging a try, you should contact me.

 I know how it works; and I have custom tailored writing services designed for you irrespective of how large or small your business is.

If you have any guest blogging related question, want to collaborate with me to move your startup or small business forward then get in touch!






Tuesday, May 7, 2013

ANNUAL BLOG REPORT XI

I have now been blogging for 11 years and published 2705 posts. My intention is to continue to publish stuff on EGO blog for at least 11 more years..., but I must admit that I have been thinking of putting the blog on a temporary hiatus. One reason for taking a blog break is that during the years of blogging, I have been adding new blogs to my content creation portfolio. At the moment, I am publishing additional content at the following places:




It could be hard to update all the above mentioned blogs on a regular basis. I will ask my fellow bloggers and contributors to write guest posts now and then. You will soon be able to read posts by a new guest blogger, Daniel Adetunji of Infowland.

As I wrote in my post, ANNUAL BLOG REPORT X, the main thing for the future will still be my EGO podcast on BlogTalkRadio. I have an idea to start a new site focusing on new media broadcasts in contrast to the mainstream media stations out there.

Pajamas at the Gate

I am planning to contact Influads for facilitating sponsorships of my podcast show.

One For You, New England (The SSP)

What kind of stuff will I publish in the future? I will go back to the philosophical core of EGO and write more posts on epistemology (reason), ethics (egoism) and politics (laissez-faire capitalism), but I will also mix it up with funny cat meme material, due to the fact that "Internet is made of cats"...

Internet Is Made Of Cats


As an ending note, I want you to stay tuned for my new project, Americanized.org. Please go to John Cox's post, Website Banner Commission, and read the comment thread and you will get "insider information" about the work of art.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Thursday, April 18, 2013

GOOGLE+ COMMENTS ON BLOGGER

From Google's official blog (Bringing Google+ Comments to Blogger):

Bringing Google+ Comments to Blogger Reading and responding to comments can be one of the most rewarding aspects of blogging. Not only do they help you connect with your readers, they can also inspire later blog entries. The challenge, oftentimes, is following all the conversations around your content—on Google+, for instance, as well as on your website. So we're making things a lot simpler.

(Googleblog.blogspot.com, April 18, 2013.) 

Do you think that this new feature will give other comment services, e.g., Disqus, Livefyre and CommentLuv a fighting match?

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

JESUS, SOCIALISM AND HUGO CHAVEZ

From Time magazine:

“Capitalism is the way of the devil and exploitation. If you really want to look at things through the eyes of Jesus Christ — who I think was the first socialist — only socialism can really create a genuine society.” — Chávez, on Christ’s economic views, in 2006.
(Time.com, March 5, 2013.)

Illustration by John Cox.

Friday, January 11, 2013

LOL CATS CREATING BUZZ & BIZ

It is amazing how cats could create a such online buzz and big business. I am missing Morris the cat very much, but Robin & Rufus are our family's precious cats nowadays.

Robin & Rufus
Robin & Rufus

Here is an excerpt from Rahul Varshneya's interview with Ben Huh, CEO and founder of Cheezburger (featuring LOLcats):

Rahul Varshneya: What are your greatest learnings as an entrepreneur, things that you would give as advice to an aspiring entrepreneur? 
Ben Huh: Don’t have a fear of talking about your failures. Don’t hide your mistakes. Because we know that running a startup is really hard, and it’s a lot harder if you lie about it. It’s a lot harder if you can’t be honest about the situation you’re in, and you can’t be honest about asking for help.  
(http://rahulvarshneya.com, December 20, 2012.)

You could read what I learned from my business failures in my post (from 2009), Five Lessons Learned from my Start-up — And why I’d Do it Again, on Open Forum (powered by American Express).

Let's keep the game going! Please add your thoughts in the comment section.


Game For Cats

UPDATE 01/13/2013:

Check out Catmoji! Hat tip to Sarah Lane of The Social Hour.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

HITTING THE FOLLOW LIMIT ON TWITTER



How many tweeps could you handle? Is the magic number 150 (Dunbar's number)? Could it be a good idea to try to increase the amount of people you are following on Twitter, or am I on the "wrong" path...
From Ev Williams's post, Making Progress on Spam:

There Is No Magic Number  
So, our challenge is to curb this type of behavior without interfering with non-spammy users—some of whom may just be very enthusiastic followers. What is a reasonable number of people to follow, anyway? Most users may have a hard time finding 500 accounts they are interested in—while others would think a limit of 10,000 is too low. 
Also, people approach Twitter in different ways. Some think you should follow everyone who follows you. Personally, I don't because that would render Twitter unusable for me. I "only" follow about 700 accounts—less than 5% of the 16,000 who follow me. (Mr. Obama may have time to keep up with 50,000 people, but I'm a busy guy!) 
The point is, there is no right or wrong. And there is no perfect formula. We do our best by taking a multi-dimensional approach. We look at a number of factors—including how many people are following you back—before applying limits. We don't reveal exact limits, because it's somewhat complicated and, more importantly, if you were to tell spammers exactly what the filtering rules are on your email or, say, Google's PageRank, they'd just engineer their way around them much more easily.

(blog.twitter.com, August 7, 2008.)


Here is my comment (BizSugar) on Valentine Belonwu's post, How to Promote Your Business on Twitter? Here are 7 Awesome Tips:

Twitter is one of my favorite social media channel. I have participated in this kind of cocktail party, listening to several radio stations of lifestreams, since 2007. Right now I am looking for a tool to help me clean up some of Twitter users I am following, so I can follow new tweeps. I have reached the "follow limit". Twitter has put a cap at 2000 users that you are following. I am following over 4000 users at the moment, but have "only" 3800 followers, so I can't follow new tweeps at the moment. Do you have tips on a tool that take care of this situation?

Valentine suggested that I should test out JustUnfollow. Don't you think that Codigami Technologies Pvt. Ltd's video demo is inspired by CommonCraft?! ;)

JustUnfollow - find who unfollowed you on twitter

Do you know about the different Twitter follow limits? I don't hate the limit as Isla McKetta, but I agree with much of her statements. Here is an excerpt from her post, Why I Hate the Twitter Follower Limit:

I follow back. Not indiscriminately, but if you want to take time to get to know me, I’d like to get to know you too. We can do that on Facebook, but unfortunately you’ll have to make the first move on Twitter (and wait until I hit some magical unpublished ratio—PR and the Social Web says the magic formula is number of followers plus 10%—that means I can follow you back). 
(Portent.com, September 17, 2012.)

It is up to the folks at Twitter to set their own rules, but personally I don't understand their reasoning with the limit:

When you reach a daily or total limit and we show you an error message, you've hit a technical limit imposed to limit egregious behavior by spam accounts and to prevent strain on the site.  
(support.twitter.com)

Kathy Colaiacovo: I promise you, I am not a spammer! ;)

Twitter does have limits set in place with regards to ratios of following (who you follow) and followers (who follows you) and their preference is to have more followers than following. They do this for one main reason – to keep spammers at bay. If you follow 1500 people and only 150 follow you back – the first question people ask is ‘why is no one following this person?’ and assumptions are made that you are trying to ‘talk’ to more people than want to talk back to you which = SPAM ALERT!

(social4business.com, January 30, 2011.)

Before I test JustUnfollow, I want to hear your thoughts on this issue and tools you have used in order to keep your Twitter feed nice and tidy.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

WEEKLY REVIEW 1

This year I will do my utmost to take time and do a weekly review of my worklife activities. I will start out with the first week to say that I must start to block out time for the weekly review.

What do think is the best time to do a weekly review? I have set the alarm on Saturday at 8 AM for a point in time for reflection and introspection. Maybe a morning during the weekend will be a good time for a weekly review?



Things to go through:


  • Scan through the appointments and notes in the Moleskine notebook that have been during the week. Go back a couple of weeks to see if I have missed something and browse ahead a couple of weeks in the calendar to see what is coming up in the near future.
  • Go through the Eisenhower matrix with do first things, scheduled activities, delegated stuff and things that I shouldn't do at all.
  • Scan through email messages in the inbox, archive old stuff, and do an Unroll.me session.
  • Read some pages in a productivity / time management book or e-book.


How would you conduct a weekly review?


EGO PODCAST FOR THE WIN

Please listen to my first EGO podcast show in 2013.


Listen to internet radio with Lyceum1776 on Blog Talk Radio

You can subscribe to the RSS feed in order to get notified of new episodes in the future. If you have an iPhone, I recommend you to check out the podcatcher, Downcast app and then add my podcast to it. Do a search on "EGO Blog Talk Radio" and you will find it.


I would appreciate it very much if you could take some time and go to the show page on iTunes and give some stars and write a short review of my podcast. :)


Please feel free to add a comment on the show episode by using your Facebook login credentials and go to EGO podcast Facebook page and continue the conversation!

Here are some show notes:

Baby 2013 cartoon by John Cox.








  • Tips on guests, topics...


  • Schedule in the future: once a month, starting in February, later on fortnightly and then every week. I will do podcasts now and then with other tools too, e.g., Audioboo and Soundcloud.




Description of the show:

Reason - Egoism - Laissez-Faire Capitalism









Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comment section! Stay tuned for the next EGO podcast!

SP mic.
SP mic.