Gribble Awards – Gribbley’s for November

Around the blogosphere this month: These are the articles that have stood out for me:
The Orlando Sentinal –

Although bloggers — basically people who keep Internet diaries to be read by a few or a few thousand — can start off with a bang, many are soon casting about for something to write about. When they get so desperate that they are actually typing “I don’t know what to write,” then the party’s over.

“That’s sort of the quintessential last post,” says Mason, “and then . . . crickets.”

Remember: Passion sells

There are 5,000 new blogs started each day. And many of them are, well, pretty dull. So how do you keep from being in that group?

First, be passionate about your subject matter — whether it’s dating or films or bowling.

• This is so true. With so much happening in the blog world and new blogs being created every moment of every day there needs to be something that will distinguish your blog from the rest of the pack. Passion is a great beginning but then in the following recommendation you will find some tips about what to do to market your articles. People need to hear about what you are doing and that requires work as well.

Marketing Article

Last Thursday, I reported on an article marketing experiment I am in the midst of conducting. Specifically, I wanted to create more passive income, so I decided to give article marketing a real try and see how it went.

• This article then has a great follow on to some of the ways to create increased revenue from your site.

Fast company.com

Silicon Valley start-ups and media behemoths aren’t the only ones realizing the rewards of the rebounding Web economy. Already, many A-list bloggers have generated significant income from running advertisements on their blogs. Though with an estimated 53.4 million blogs expected to launch by year-end, according to Perseus Development Corporation, it’s safe to assume that not everyone is going to get rich from blogging. So what’s in it for the up-and-coming blogger, beyond creative self-expression?

• It isn’t as easy as it sounds and there are a number of articles that criticise this post because it doesn’t talk about the majority of blogs that wont make very much money. However the possibility to create a valuable niche is there. And, there are all sorts of reasons why you may want to blog. I would suggest that he adsense model by itself has limitations even though many are using it to create a significant income. A blog does give you a public face and it can be a factor in creating a profile that may just provide opportunities that you never thought about.

The emergence of the meganiche -

Now that a billion people are online, even sites aimed at a narrow slice of the Web audience can attract huge crowds. Make way for the meganiche!

• The web world is continuing to grow and with very good incomes being made by those who have found their place the meganiche is worth understanding. The audience is growing everyday and a significant percentage of its users are looking for information. If you can organise your information well and connect with others then you have a high chance of success in creating a new meganiche.

I notice that the posts that have stood out to me are those about the possibilities that blogs can give the blogger. Thats ok because we need to understand the blogging community if we are going to be able to communicate with it. Each of these articles offers valuable insight and explores some of those possibilities.

Those wake up moments

Steve Pavlina as usual has some great insights into the awakening of our consciousness. He suggests that humanity is at the edge of a significant mass awakening.

"One day you're tooling along, working your normal job, living your normal life, and everything seems OK. But something happens that triggers a sudden expansion of your awareness, and for that brief moment of perfect clarity, you know what it's like to be fully awake. You're struck by the terrifying realization that your life has gotten way off course, and that you're really meant to be doing something entirely different."

Discovery of ourselves is one of the greatest journeys that we can take. That awake feeling is cannot be artificially induced by chemicals or by the drug of choice of the middle class, shopping. It must come from within, from our spirits. What an exciting concept to see the possibility of people determing a new course for their lives based on the total awakening to their souls. What a difference such clarity could make for our collective consciousness. The first step of this journey begins with honesty. It will bring to us a mirror that will allows us to see ourselves in such a way that the possibility opens for us to begin that walk.

Positive thinkings power – there’s more to it than just weight loss

Here is a great list of tips regarding the benefits of the positive thinking. Evidently it really does work. Even if it doesn’t its much better to be positive and reasonably happy than negative and very unhappy.

• Optimism is a predictor of well-being, mood, physical health, and achievements
• Positive thinking has been linked to a number of health benefits including enhanced immune functioning, faster recovery from surgery, increased longevity, reduced stress
• Optimism can help people recover from setbacks during a weight loss program
• Optimists are more persistent
• Practicing positive thinking regularly helps to change the neural circuits in the brain, making it easier to think positively and engage in positive behaviors
• Affirmations are short positive “I” statements that are in present tense – i.e. “I choose healthy foods that nourish my body.”
• Keep a weekly journal of your achievements to help you stay focused on the positive and keep motivated
• Connect with others – optimists are more likely to seek social support which can help during a weight management program
• for more link here

Worth a read and the podcast should be worth a listen.

Relating Web 2.0 to our personal development

 

Open up your data as much possible. There is no future in hoarding data, only controlling it.

Learn not to control information but become a conduit for communication. There is no future in relationships where a person uses their personal knowledge as power. So as much as possible be an open book. People will value your transperancy because they will be able to get to know an authentic person. Controlling data is about learning to organise information in such a way that people are able to access it in a meaningful way. Learn to be such a meaningful person in the way that you are able to communicate so that your interaction facilitates further conversation.

 

Aggressively add feedback loops to everything. Pull out the loops that don't seem to matter and emphasize the ones that give results.

Learn to listen and learn to hear what people are saying. Create spaces where people are able to come to you and know that they will be heard.

 

Continuous release cycles. The bigger the release, the more unwieldy it becomes (more dependencies, more planning, more disruption.) Organic growth is the most powerful, adaptive, and resilient.

Learn that people are your strength. Grow with them continually. Create an environment where you are able to grow continually rather than trying to take giant leaps. Organic growth is all about expanding your God given capacity, finding people that complement your abilities and allowing them to take their rightful place in your life.

 

Make your users part of your software. They are your most valuable source of content, feedback, and passion. Start understanding social architecture. Give up non-essential control. Or your users will likely go elsewhere.

 

Recognise the strengths in others and seek to bring out the potential in others at all times. It will come back to you eventually and eventually add to who you are. Recognise that the most valuable part of your life is the people around you.

 

Turn your applications into platforms. An application usually has a single predetermined use, a platform is design to be the foundation of something bigger. Instead of getting a single type of use from your software and data, you might be hundreds or thousands of them.

Learn to integrate rather than control. Controlling personalities are never able to grow beyond their own limitations. Those who are able to see that by bringing others into the adventure will in fact enhance that adventure are able to spread the control to others.

 

Don't create social communities just to have them. They aren't a checklist item. But do empower inspired users to create them.

Be genuine in your relationships with others. There is a difference between those who network as a part of meeting their own agenda. We all know the type because of their lack of genuiness. We tire very quickly in these relationships because they are based on what can be gotten out of it.

Be yourself – Everyone else is taken

You are special. Until you realise that no one else in the whole world has your unique combination of strengths, thoughts, emotions, personality, desire, hopes and dreams you will never really reach your potential. No one else will ever be able to do the things that you do in quite the same way. You are special because of your unique spirit.

Until we learn to be comfortable in our own skin we can forget what it is that we were created for. That is why it is so important to be yourself. Everyone else is too busy to be themselves and can never really be the person that you are. That is why its so important to be ourselves and be happy with the way that we are.

This doesn’t mean that we should stop trying to improve ourselves. Being able to change is a part of the wonder of human existence. To become aware of ourselves and to recognise that we can expand our consciousness is a unique gift to humanity. That’s why we need to be ourself and not just try and clone ourself on a perception of what someone elses reality is about.

And if you ever forget just how special you are take this with you:

I’m special. In all the world there is no one like me. Since the beginning of time there has never been another person like me.
Nobody has my smile. Nobody has my eyes, my nose, my hair, my hands, my voice, I’m special.
Nobody anywhere has my taste for food or music or art. Nobody sees things just as I do.
In all time there has been no one who laughs like me, no one who cries like me.
And what makes me laugh and cry will never provoke identical laughter and tears from anybody else, ever.
No one reacts to any situation just as I would react.
I’m special. No one in the universe can reach the quality of my combination of talent, ideas, abilities and feelings.
Like a room full of musical instruments some may excel alone, but none can match the symphony sound when they are played together. I’m a symphony.
Through all eternity no one will ever look, talk, walk, think or do like me.
I’m special. I’m rare.
I’m special. And I am beginning to realise that it is no accident that I’m special.
I’m beginning to realise that God made me special for a very special purpose.
He must have a job that no one else can do as well as I.
Out of billions of applicants only one is qualified only one has the rare combination of what it takes to be me.

That one is me, because…….I’m special.

Read this poem whenever you begin to question just how important you are. When you question your life purpose. When you feel less than capable. When you feel as if you have failed in some way.

Always remember that everyone else is taken and that the most important job that you have in this world is to be yourself. Because, you are special.

He-Brew Beer

I couldn’t resist putting this in. OK, we’re jealous. When did you last hear of Baptist Bitter? Or Pentecostal Pilsener? Or even Lutheran Lager? Like, never. So if you’re in search of a truly divine beer, you’ll have to cross the denominational divides big time, and head off to He’brew for “the best (and only) Jewish beer in America”.

He’brew, “the chosen beer”, offers four different brews. There’s Genesis Ale; there’s Messiah Bold (“the beer you’ve been waiting for”, ha ha); there’s Genesis 10:10 (brewed with pomegranate juice); there’s Monumental Jewbelation, and there’s even a beer in celebration of Jewish comedian Lenny Bruce. “This Chanukah, candles won’t be the only thing getting lit!” says one of the brewery’s many inspired sales blurbs.

He’brew: a beer so blessed, you’ll wish you were circumcised. Click here for the He’brew website. from the Ship of Fools

The long tail of success – or success for the rest of us

The long tail is the concept that there are huge markets that lie on the periphery of the so called big ticket items. When it comes to sales we see that Ebay has capitalised on this almost perfectly. The attraction is that anyone can make money on Ebay. All that you have to do is clean out your cupboards and garage and someone else is bound to pay money for it. The long tail makes success more accessible for us all. It allows anyone to use technological resources to reach a huge audience.

 TV stations have limited time slots, so the opportunity cost of each time slot is high; stations therefore choose programs that have the broadest appeal. But as the number of TV stations grows or TV programming is distributed through other digital channels, the choice of TV programs grows and the cultural diversity rises.

Some of the most successful Internet businesses have leveraged the Long Tail as part of their businesses. Examples include eBay (auctions), Yahoo! and Google (web search), and Amazon (retail) amongst the majors along with smaller Internet companies like Audible (audio books) and Netflix (video rental).

Often presented as a phenomenon of interest primarily to mass market retailers and web-based businesses, the Long Tail also has implications for the producers of content, especially those whose products could not – for economic reasons – find a place in pre-Internet information distribution channels controlled by book publishers, record companies, movie studios, and television networks. Looked at from the producers’ side, the Long Tail has made possible a flowering of creativity across all fields of human endeavour. (Wikipedia)

In our own personal success the long tail is also very true. The long tail of success allows everyone possibilites to reach their potential. To discover their authentic existence that allows for their unique spirit to flourish. The highest human endeavour is to discover our God given creativity and to express that creativity in meaningful ways. The long tail of succes recognises that the resources to achieve greatness are available to not just a chosen few but to all who take hold of possibility and allow that to be expressed in their own life.

The long tail says to us that we don’t need to be overshadowed by a few bright shining stars. That that as we shine together we create a thing of far greater brightness and beauty. Success is no longer something to be controlled but it is a thing to be shared and given freely.

One question we should ask about our success is, what gifts can I give today? And, I am not just talking about that little donate safely by PayPal button on the top right hand side of this blog. I know that in my marriage when I stop giving I fail. My conversation expresses negativity, I am difficult, arrogant, rude and self consumed. The same is true of our personal devlopment it only starts when we are able to begin to give. It is not an option. We must never be fooled into thinking that just because we are the recipients of gifts that we have found a safe place. Actually the oposite is true such a privilege must shock us into an increased awareness that it is time to give.

Personal Development Carnival

Hey guys great to be a part of the Personal Development Carnival. As usual there are some great links to some excellent posts to enable us to create a better life.

A good post to follow up my article on Leadership beginning at home is this thankyou from the balanced life centre.

Don’t go chasing people you’ll never make happy

Don’t go chasing people you’ll never make happy.A great example is the original wiki design. Ward Cunningham and friends deliberately stripped the wiki of many features that were considered integral to document collaboration in the past. Instead of attributing each change of the document to a certain person, they removed much of the visual representation of ownership. They made the content ego-less and time-less. They decided it wasn’t important who wrote the content or when it was written. And that has made all the difference. This decision fostered a shared sense of community and was a key ingredient in the success of Wikipedia.

 One of the hardest aspects of community is learning that you will never make some people happy. This is why it is so important to have a core purpose fixed firmly in your own mind. It is important because unhappy people will try to manipulate and control you and often sidetrack you along your way.

Wikipedia is incredibly successful because it has such a strong sense of community coupled with a core purpose of building a knowledge base from its community. There are the whingers of course who would like extra features but Wikipedia has resisted the temptation to allow individuals to rule what the rest are doing. It has determined the big picture is so important and cannot be sacrificed for the sake of any one person.

Some people don’t like this often because of their overinflated egos and self perceived importance. At Wikipedia knowledge is king not, “I”. But, look at its incredible success.

In our own personal development this principle is also true. I must decide what I have been placed on this earth for. Do I really believe that I was placed here to make a difference? If the answer is yes then I must commit myself to a purpose, whether it be saving the whales, helping disadvantaged people, serving God, building a better family. Whatever it is it must be held at the centre of all that we do. It will then allow us to make decisions about the many choices that we will have to make about the way to achieve that purpose.

Take the time to understand yourself. Find a tool that will allow you to do this. I recommend the Green Light Profile because it offers its advice in the context of a relationship with your career coach who will help you look at your career choices. It is something that I have spent a lot of time working through with people and it is a very positive model that looks at your strengths. But really any tool that enables you to better understand some aspect of who you are will help.

It will help you to make some people unhappy. Not eveyone will appreciate your purposefulness because it will stop their manipulation of your circumstances to bring you down to their level. Don’t worry about them. Encourage if you have the opportunity but most of the time you will have to leave them in their misery. Move past that and do something great today.

 

Building a better blog world – one post at a time

I believe that those who contribute to the conversation – even if it’s critically – are the bloggers that are really the ones that are the most interesting to read. These leaders don’t always paint everything as candy canes and lollipops. They call things like they see them. But they do so not to attack, but to advance the conversation forward. They do so to lead people toward a larger goal. (Micropersuasion)

This is a great comment on the world of blogging. As it becomes more and more influential we will see a growing confusion because of the sheer bulk of information coming out of the blogs.

Bloggers have a couple of options

1. They can choose to add to the value already on the web
2. They can choose to take away from the value on the web

The new leaders will be those who contribute. They will be those who give to the blogging community and those who are able to engage in real relationships and encourage others to find their voice.

Blogging is no different to many other conversations that we have its just that the medium is changing. And, as this medium matures we will see some people rise to the challenges of finding a voice. In many cases this will mean that those who are stuck in the traditional mindsets of authority, control and arrogance will eventually be drowned out by those who are able to share, relate and empathise.

The call is for people to be able to rise to meet this challenge. To set before us an agenda allows us all to move a step further forward. To move us all towards a greater honesty and integrity that will encourage us to see ourselves just that little bit more clearly. Isn’t this what happens in any good conversation?

One writer describes a range of people who contribute to the flow of energy in our lives. He called those who take VDP’s, Very Draining People. In the blog world these are the people who as Steve writes tear down and criticise. At the other end of the spectrum are the VIP’s, Very Important People. These are the people who contribute to your energy flow, they are the people who energise you. We have all had conversations that we go away from feeling drained you have just met a VDP we need to limit the time spent with them. On the other hand we all would have had energising conversations, where you go away encouraged to continue the journey or have been given a fresh idea or where you have been validates for who you are. These are the VIPs.

We need to ensure that we maintain a balance in the conversations that we have. Regulate the number of VDP conversations that you have whether it be through a blog or face to face. And, ensure that you have plenty of VIPs with you on your journey. They will give you the encouragement and wisdom to take move that next step forward.

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