I was eating a late breakfast (or maybe known as lunch due to the hour I was eating) at a local café, and then a man came in and started washing the windows.
Was he supposed to do this?
Did the café know that he was cleaning their windows? Maybe they did?
Maybe he has a contract/agreement to come by once a week to make the glass sparkle?
This made me think of the window washers you see at traffic lights; these window washers wash your window and ask for money afterward. Sometimes they are nice and when you say no that is fine, other times they wash your windscreen and demand money for the job done.
What if the washing windscreens at traffic lights was transported into the business world? Well not windscreens in business but HUGE Windows, or just normal ones depending on where your business is located.
Like this man at the café washing the windows and politely leaving after he was finished, what if someone suddenly showed up at any business and washed the windows and asked for payment?
What would you think? Would you as a business be pleased with the incentive shown??? Or would this be annoying?
If people just showed up and cleaned windows, they would need to be compensated. Right? How would this happen if they were not supposed to be there in first place.
If you have mysterious window cleaners do a job that wasn’t agreed to, and then demand money that might get awkward and possibly frustrating.
Admittedly I loved my idea of people just randomly showing up and cleaning windows. I giggled to myself while having a bizarre idea of many managers being troubled by how to deal with this weird occurrence.
Would you like the fact that someone just shows up to clean your windows? Would you pay someone if they were not contracted for this job?
I hate cleaning windows so maybe this might be a good fit if someone decided they love it.
This could be a brilliant business idea and surprise and help many…what do you think?
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Blogging and planning a new product. Stay tuned. You will love it!
Last weekend I was in Melbourne for Problogger Evolve and had a fab time. I learnt a lot, networked and met some of the speakers I was really wanting to meet.
My brain is still racing with ideas and thoughts about how to put things in motion. Yes world domination awaits for me soon. I know you laugh, but it will happen.
It is a pity though that being sick has not helped with my plan to dominate the online world (at least not yet). I am slowly getting better and sadly due to this sickness had to miss Tracey Spicer speak the other day. Although I missed this opportunity I gave my ticket to another lovely blogger and she had a blast at the event. It was nice that another working mum could put the ticket to use and enjoy the event.
Blogging and planning a new product. Stay tuned. You will love it!
I have been using my time to organise things slowly for one of my first major products and challenges. A lot of work now needs to happen before it is launched. A book to write and a whole course to go with it. It is HUGE and also exciting, and a little bit scary.
The speakers did say if it doesn’t scare you, then it is not worth doing. So I think I am choosing something worth doing by the scary factor here..
It is not that scary but mainly due to the enormity of work involved, and hoping that others will love it when it goes live.
I have also been thinking about what I was told in the UNSTOPPABLE Program…. “How do you want your day to look” this was the answer to my question about having a million things to do and a narrow window to do anything in.
Lots to digest and to do….
What do you do when you are sick?
I really should go to bed but I have been registering domains and names online for my new idea.
I did collapse the other day and just slept and I really must have needed it. I am still exhausted and not 100% but feeling a little bit better than the day before.
Have you come back from a conference and had so much swirling around in your head?
Are you secretly getting orgainsed to launch a new product from something that was said at the conference? Let me know how you are going… you don’t need to tell me your secret squirrel project.
Watch this space, soon there will be a huge announcement. Yep soon…… so get excited people!
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A while ago I attended an SEO course. The course was run by Michael of Digital Class.
I knew a bit about SEO already, but a refresher and more info on current trends is always a good idea.
An overview of the SEO Process.
So, what is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation.
It is important to have your site optimised so that search engines and people can find you.
SEO is also about making your website friendly to search engines but also for users as well. If your website is hard to use this will not be good for usability and can impact your listings on search engines as well.
This is not a short term fix for your website. An SEO Strategy is a long term strategy, which can take up to months to see results. Even though it is a long term strategy and you will not see immediate results it is a good idea to have an SEO Strategy for your website.
How does it work?
There are a number of things you can do to improve your websites SEO.
One part of the SEO process is that you add keywords, phrases to your pages. These terms are searchable via search engines and then indexed to have your article get found more easily.
Keywords can be added to meta data, tags, keywords and titles. If these keywords are popular search terms then your article will hopefully appear on page 1 or close to of the Google Search results.
The Google Search Engine is the main search engine used by users. Optimising your site with Google in mind is a wise idea.
An SEO Strategy means that it is also more than keywords, it is content, building links on other sites and much more!
On page SEO – Make sure that your titles for posts have a searchable term and your keywords in it. Search for popular terms using web tools, Ensure that all images have ALT Tags on them. This is helpful for accessibility and is the most important SEO factor for images.
SEO Content – Your content needs to be relevant and helpful is best for SEO. Website with strong content builds better relationships and fuels more ways to showcase via different channels. If your content is fabulous, more people will share it and therefore help with SEO.
Link Building – Google uses links as votes so, therefore, it is great for SEO. Build links from other sites, industry listings, sites you like or recommend and more. Google does not like follow links if you have paid advertising on your website. This violates Google’s webmaster guidelines. If you do promote a site that you are paid to review it is advisable to use a nofollow link.
Keyword Research
It is advisable to research what keywords to add to your posts or articles. Having an idea of what people would search for can help your article get higher up search results, and also improve your organic reach.
I look at the topic I’m writing about and do a Google search on similar posts. I see what keywords they have used and to see how popular these content pieces are.
Michael mentioned that Google Keyword Planner is a good tool to use. This tool is free, as long as you have an adwords account.
This tool gives me phrases to add to my posts as well as keywords. Having long tail search terms I feel is good as I like to search on Google for a certain combination of words and I’m sure others do this too.
Another tool which Michael said was the next best option, and the most affordable is KWFinder. You can do a few free searches per day.
One thing that Google is prioritising, mobile friendly websites.
“We will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results,” said Takaki Makino, Chaesang Jung and Doantam Phan in a blog post for Google webmasters.” (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/20/google-mobilegeddon-will-shake-up-mobile-search-results)
On the first of January this year I updated my website to be more mobile friendly. It is now great on all devices and looks amazing (well I think so).
I know there is more to do and I will get to more of my SEO Strategy soon. There is always something to do with SEO on your site.
Another tool that is a must have is to install Google Analytics on your website. Keeping track of popular content is ideal, you then can optimise your best articles and then write more content that your readers want. The data that Google Analytics gives you is gold as this can show you so much to understand how your content is doing. Without this analytics tool, you are really flying blind.
This SEO course from Digital Class was great and made me think of all the things I need to do to make my site better. As said, I’ve optimised my website to better for mobile. On my site over 30% of my readers are using a mobile device. If your site is not able to be seen easily on a mobile screen you are missing out on readers.
I need to focus on making sure that all my posts are SEO optimised, some of my articles from when I first started the blog are not great and need to be improved.
Speed Test for your Website
Google is concerned with speed and load time of your website. If it takes forever it is not great for SEO. Check out your website with this great tool from Google, it also gives you what needs to be fixed: Anazyle your Site Speed from Google
Google Analytics helps you with your SEO Strategy. You can determine what is popular, what isn’t working and where to direct your energy.
Want to Learn more about SEO?
Do you need a refresher course on SEO or need a great course on the fundamentals? If you do consider Micheal from Digital Class
The course covered everything you need. You get digital notes that you can follow online or print out.
Micheal put things into everyday language that everyone can understand, so don’t freak out if you are not technically minded.
Thanks Michael for a great course.
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Good Morning Gold Coast! Day 1 of Problogger at the RACV Royal Pines Resort. Keen to learn more and to meet all the bloggers today.
Well for me there are many reasons why I blog.
Something for me– I started the blog to do something while the twins were babies. Before I had my twin girls I looked after, managed and organised websites so it was a natural thing to start my own site.
Keep my professional skills sharp – At first I just kept it quiet and did it for me. It was something that I started to do. It was good to do some work that was not looking after babies and allowed me to use my mind and skills that I had developed and practiced at work.
Control over my work – I then decided to make the blog public and moved it over to a domain name that removed WordPress from the URL and I control the page and the back-end. It is a site that allows me to have overall control and that makes me feel amazing. Making decisions of what direction the blog goes in and what it looks like and what gets posted is fabulous. It is my site and I have control over it.
Gives me a voice– As you can already see I like the fact that I have my own space to have a voice. I love the fact that it is a medium that can be done from anywhere in the world as long as you have access to a computer or a phone.
There are so many possibilities that you can do via a blog. You can make it a business or just keep it a hobby it is up to you.
My aim is to take the blog to the next level and to do a new look and feel soon (so stay tuned).
Today is day one of Problogger. I am keen to learn what others are doing with their blogs, learn about strategy, planning and content. It is a great event to get inspired, focus on your talents and find ideas that might help you out. You never know what idea will be the one that is the changer that can make the most difference.
Have a small business that you are passionate about?
Would you love to get better and be inspired by others? I know my answer would be big YES!
I love being surrounded by like-minded people that just make you feel energetic, inspired, and think about things in such different ways.
Investing in you is important. Learning from others that have been there and had some of the same experiences is helpful. You can learn what worked for them and what didn’t and of course how to improve things for the better. Maybe they will give you their procedures and techniques, or at least give you some idea how they manage to do it all and do it so well.
This is why I love going to conferences like Problogger. It is a chance to focus on me, my work, and I believe it is an investment. It is corporate training, corporate development but for me, I am the corporation. I am the BIG business although on a much smaller scale. It is nice to think BIG even when you are not.
Me and Barry Du Bois. Yes I did say I know you from TV! @cancercouncil #TheLivingRoom @kids_business
Even if you have been blogging for years and might know a bit already, there might be that one thing that you had no idea about. That one thing might be the difference on how you run your blog/business and it could be the thing that allows you to stand out from the crowd.
Attending conferences like these is also good for networking with other bloggers and creating friendships. As a blogger that is a stay at home mum to three kids now, it is nice to be taken seriously as a blogger rather than just a mum. I know I’m not earning the big bucks but you never know my time will come and that might be the case. Everyone had to start somewhere.
Investing in you as a person is always a good idea. I see that a couple of days away and the costs associated with this trip as minimal in the scheme of things. I don’t get time off as a mum. I don’t get sick leave, I have been going non-stop and think that this is a nice break that will also allow me to focus on my fourth or maybe other baby (my blog)… not sure where it would place in the scheme of things. Maybe it really was third?
It is so easy as a mother not to do things for you. If you don’t do anything for yourself you will get frustrated and annoyed. Taking the time, even if it is a day here or there is much needed.
Do you have a partner or maybe friends that don’t see the value in what you are doing? “Oh that blog, why are you doing it, it is not like you are getting paid”. Well I think they are wrong…it does not matter if you are getting paid for your efforts now. Although heaps of money would be nice and bring it on! You just don’t know where things might lead. You could be blogging away and someone might love your writing and offer you a book deal. The book might become a film and now you are famous and worth a small fortune. Yes I have used some wonderful positive daydreams about how blogging could lead you to a fab job and yes being very wealthy.
It does not have to be sudden fame and wealth, you could just be offered a wonderful job for a magazine or a website. If you were not blogging this job would never have happened, so keep going everyone out there in blogging world. Don’t give up. If it is important to you, then that is the only thing that you need to worry about. Forget about the haters and people that have no idea. Just keep on keeping on and invest in you and things will happen.
I am very lucky this year that I can attend Problogger. The reason is my wonderful mother is able to come and mind the kids. I was hoping that hubby and the kids might make it a family holiday again but that was not to be. Hubby cannot take time off work, so it is just me going again. I am just grateful that I get to go.
Only yesterday I was able to attend Kids Business’ Bloggers Brunch. They were kind enough to offer babysitting and I was very happy and appreciative of this. The babysitting allowed me to walk around and talk without a baby on my hip and to have adult conversations. It was a delightful change from my daily goings ons.
Yesterday I was up at 4am due to baby wanting to be fed. I was going to be up at 5am so thought no point going back to bed. After feeding the baby I gave him a bath (I have never bathed him so early and that was amazing I fitted it all in), changed his clothes and put him to bed until we were all ready to leave. I changed his nappy and then all kids were in the car ready to drop the twins at before school care.
Learning more about the fab brands at the Bloggers Brunch yesterday. Thanks Kids Business it was a great day out.
I had to get the twins ready for before school care and drop them off as close to 7am as I could. I managed to get the girls to care at about 7.20am. So I thought that was pretty good.
So now kids were at care, the baby and I were in the car for our huge journey to Centennial Park. I enjoyed the journey aside from the couple of times that Alex decided to scream the car out! Yes that was not fun at all. Thank goodness he fell asleep soon after his screaming moments.
I had to be at the Bloggers Brunch for 10am and managed to get there with 30mins to spare. I found a place to park the car. Fed and changed the baby and then got the pram and nappy bag organised and was off to the venue.
It was great to bump into old blogging mates and to meet new ones. I also bumped into a mate’s niece… what a small world.
I must say that yesterday was a HUGE day. I ended up being up for over 14 hours, and oh did I sleep when my head hit the pillow. I am still tired from yesterday as I write this. A BIG thank you to Steph and the team from Kids Business for a fabulous day and all the lovely brands that made it along to showcase their products.
No matter if you are earning money or not, take every opportunity that comes your way. You never know where it might lead and what you might learn. The people that might be not valuing your time you spend on your hobby/blog or passion will value it when it comes to affect them, for example when it starts earning some money. I am sure they would want to be supportive then. Or if you become famous or well known.
Do it for you.
Do what makes you feel good.
I have heard it all. “Oh that is not a job! You are not earning any money. Oh ….. You are a mother”. Yes but I do much more than just being a mummy.
Invest in you and the Rest will come. This sounds a little zen or spiritual but it is true. It is like dressing for the job that you want rather than the one you have.
Let me know what you have done as an investment in yourself? Is it a course? A conference? Or just a weekend away to have some time out? Or maybe it is a course that you have been desperate to do, learning to paint or say photography.
Whatever it is, it is your time.
Have time to yourself.
Have your space.
Do something that helps you grow that allows you to be you rather than someone’s mum during this period.
As per previous post, I have not been well. I have used my time to try and recover and get better. I am a little better but still not 100%. According to the doctors all is normal but I still have the cough and am out of breath every now and then. Has this happened to you? Feel not well but there is nothing wrong! I must say it is very annoying but it could just be due to be pregnant that all the good stuff is going to the baby and I am stuck fighting whatever it was. I suppose that is the perils of pregnancy.
I’ve been resting, trying to get better and also writing this post. I have wanted to post this earlier but I had two nights in hospital the other week and have been getting better since. I am much better now but still have a cough and get out of breathe every now and then.
Day 1 at Problogger…. getting excited now!
Now…… finally to post about the fabulous, invigorating and inspiring conference that is Problogger.
Previous to the conference all talks and times were posted and I of course made a schedule of the talks that I wished to go to. I wish I could have been in two talks at the same time but that would not be possible due to the fact that they are in completely different rooms. The only saving grace about this is that as a ticket holder I got presentations and the audio from all other talks so at the end of the day I did not miss out, however being at the talk and experiencing it is great as well.
One of the overarching themes of the conference this year was giving something back to the reader and community. Nearly all the presenters spoke about giving to the community and not focusing on what you will get. Be someone that helps the people and then your community will grow as well.
Day 1 has started and Darren has started his introduction to the conference.
So what talks did I think were amazing this year?
Jadah Sellner from Simple Green Smoothies
How to Grow Your Blog – Actionable Productivity Tips for Busy Bloggers – Christina Butcher & Carly Jacobs
Creating Business Ideas – Brandon Cowan
Jadah during her talk at Problogger
Jadah Sellner from Simple Green Smoothies
Jadah was an amazing speaker. She was so alive and spoke with enthusiasm about her journey. Simple Green Smoothies is not an overnight success. Jadah and her husband started a business with the idea that it was a playground for kids (Business idea number 1 – Little Sprouts Playhouse was formed in 2009 so that they could be with their 18mth old daughter) so that they can be allowed to do all the things that parents say no to. However that business model was short lived as parents did not want to stay with their children and preferred to drop them off. The business model morphed into a preschool and then Jadah and her husband were doing many jobs that then caused stress and worry.
Due to being so busy and run off their feet Jadah gained weight, was depressed and upset. Her relationship with her husband was suffering and they realised that they had to make a change.
They both decided to quit Little Sprouts Playhouse as they chose to be together. “Anything that comprises your health and your relationships is not a sustainable business model”. Is the business that you are building sustainable? It is okay according to Jadah to get rid of some idea babies to move onto the next big idea that will work and be sustainable.
After they quit the business they were broke. She moved in with her husband’s parents, they were in debt with over $40k owing and they were living from pay check to pay check. Her husband was working all hours, Jadah was working two part time jobs and also looking after their four year old daughter as well. It was hard.
Jadah wanted a business that allowed freedom for herself, her family, location freedom (travel the world and have time to be at her child’s school) and also allowed herself and her husband financial freedom.
Sellner decided to build a vision board. They put all their BIG dreams out there. She put down the idea of getting $15k per month income for her family and also for her business partner Jen. Jadah said that 18mths later this became a reality. Your dreams are possible.
Now to dream bigger, thanks to Jadah
Jadah Sellner and Jen Hansard founded a parenting blog called Parenting Sponge (Business idea number 2). Jen and Jadah investigated how to make money online, sponsored content, advertising and giveaways. When it first started the only people that were commenting on the website was Jadah’s mum, and her cousin who did not have children.
“We all have to start at Zero. Zero money in the bank, zero followers and zero email subscribers. Just remember we all have to start at zero”
“We get attached to our ideas, we get attached to our businesses”
“What we put out in the world actually has to help people, so if an idea is not sticking. Let it go and try something else”
“Look at failure as feedback. Put it out there in the world and let the world decide”
Simple Green Smoothies (Business idea number 3), was not meant to be a business idea or a blog. Jadah says that she talked about Simple Green Smoothies on the parenting blog and also many other topics.
A friend of Jadah’s was raving about Instagram and Jadah was not so sure. She decided to sign up and give it a go.
She did not think it was going to work but as Sellner points out, sometimes it is the things that you think will never work that end up changing your business for the better and revolutionise it for the better. Simple Green Smoothies was the winning idea and the business that stuck.
Jadah was only posting two to three recipes each week on Instagram and that is how Simple Green Smoothies started.
“The idea that spreads the widest wins” Jason Silva
If you cannot get ten people to latch onto your idea you will not be able to get thousands or hundreds of thousands to spread your idea. “Pay attention to the message you are sending and is it getting to the people that you wish to serve.”
“If you want to make a million dollars, help a million people first” Jadah Sellner
My view from my hotel room at RACV Royal Pines Resort
The 3 Core Elements that Simple Green Smoothies Employs:
Attract Your Tribe
What is it that you really want to be known for?
Become fanatical and hyper focused – what is the contiguous message that you have to share
Start talking about this message over and over on a consistent basis
“The riches are in the niches” Jadah Sellner referring to Instagram
Who are you most excited to serve? Who is your ideal audience? Who is that one person that you can help. As soon as you focus to this one person level your business is going to change.
Jen and Jadah came up with a dream client. They made it up. Who would she/he be? Where would they live, would they have a family, what would their hobbies be, and what type of job would they have and so on.
Write your blog posts and social media updates to just one person. If you try to address and everyone Jadah said that no one knew who they were talking to. Making it about one person makes the message more personal and it is like you are having a conversation with the individual. So instead of Hi everyone, say, how are you? Make the connection with your tribe.
When you are clear on your message and your reader your business will change. People will sense the energy and be drawn to the messages that you are putting out there.
The yummy treats at Problogger. You do get very spoilt and they were all so yummy!
Serve Your Community
Don’t take people away from the party. Social media is like a dance party according to Jadah. If you post something on Instagram have all the information there so that your reader does not have to go anywhere else to find it. If you post a recipe list all ingredients and make it as easy as possible for your followers. Once the reader trusts you, they will go to your house (your blog/website), and sign up to your email list but first you need to add all the value to the content that you post in the social media channel that they hang out in. Don’t make the reader do an extra step. Adding a full recipe to an Instagram photo means that it is easy for someone to tag their friends and to share the content.
All of the value is not on the blog it is on different channels. Jadah said that in the last year she has blogged 120 times on the website (Her Home), and likes to add value to the channels that her followers live in. She puts all her content in Social Media as that is where the party is at.
Money is in your email list. You don’t own Pinterest, Instagram and other social media channels.
It is a good idea to diversify where your community is. According to Jadah, Simple Green Smoothies other social media channels are equal as they put the same amount of effort, love and interest into each area.
Spend more time creating your FREE OPT IN OFFER. Jadah created, “5 Free Recipes that will change your life”. 2,000 people signed up for Simple Green Smoothies List from this free offer. July was when Jadah started with Instagram, December was when the free opt in offer was created and the list grew to 2,000. The next year they created their 30 day smoothie challenge free opt in and their list grew to 200,000.
Make your Free Opt in better than someone’s paid offer.
Test you’re Free opt in offer. You don’t know what will work.
CREATE VALUE TO YOUR COMMUNITY WITH VERY LOW RISK TO PARTICIPATE
What is the gateway problem that you can teach or help your readers with right now? Green Simple Smoothies helps people eat healthy as more of a lifestyle not just a one off. What is the one simple thing that you can get or ask your community to do that gives them the results that they desire?
Pick 1 – 3 things to do that will help your readers transform. Your readers will then spread the word and come back again and again.
As long as you offer free resources and are helping your community it is okay to have a paid resources area as well.
First paid product was a $5 eBook. People paid for convenience to have all the recipes and info in one book, and all at once rather than having the recipes delivered each week.
Invest in your product. The next paid product (Fresh Start 21 Program) they paid for a professional photographer and hired a friend to do customer service. This helped to make sure they did not burn out and allowed them to develop more for the business.
The Fresh Start Program has generated over $1million in sales. Yes how amazing is that.
Sell transformation. Push people into action and not just into products.
Problogger designed sweets that just melted in your mouth. YUM!
3.Nurture Your Fans
Celebrate your fans that comment all the time. Thank them.
Show your readers that you are real person. Every now and then you might eat pizza and not 100% healthy and so on.
Can’t automate connection. Jadah has community happiness specialists that connect with their followers.
Friday love notes – send feedback to people who are doing a good job in the business
Engage with all readers’ comments.
“It is not about how great you are. It is about how great you make other people feel.” Jadah Sellner.
Giving away products that are in line with the business and that helps others. Simple Green Smoothies gives away blenders that help readers.
Serving is greater than building!
Love your community
The grounds at RACV Royal Pines on the Gold Coast
Jadah’s main tips:
Don’t be afraid to fail. Look at failure as feedback, put it out there and let the world decide.
If your dreams don’t scare you they aren’t big enough
Say your dreams out loud
Take imperfect action
Build a community with love & impact
“If you can change the world with your community the world will be a better place” Jadah Sellner.
Find your why. I wrote a post about this a while back. You can read more about it here.
Carly Jacobs from Smaggle and Christina Butcher from Hair Romance during their talk.
There are 5 focus areas for blog productivity:
Prioritising
Make a commitment to your blog, you might miss out on a party or your favourite show or something else.
Make some time to focus on what is necessary for YOUR blog. Is it images that are more important or is it the words that are the driver of your blog. Think about what works better for you and take time to work on it.
If you value images over words or the other way round you can always work on developing better images in the future for your blog. You can always get better with time.
Everything does not have to be perfect
Create a positive step towards your blog and fill out the below sentence.
My blog is important. I blog because……………………………… My blog is worth my time.
The yummy drinks at Problogger
Setting Realistic Goals
Success is rarely accidental
Other people make excuses why other blogs are successful. “They started at the right time”, or “They have experience in the industry”, what about, “They have a better niche than I do”, and “They are selling products and I’m not”
What does your success look like? Christina counts shares and re-pins whereas Carly counts success via comments. Use what works for your brand and goals.
Wishes aren’t goals you need to be specific. You need to put a time frame on your goal and have a number in mind of how many more followers you would like. See below graphic.
Take action now – set yourself a measurable goal. I will have xxx number of followers/subscribers/uniques by xxxx date and I will do this by taking the following steps.
Calendars and Planning
The more routine I have the more creative I can be
Pre-planning = Less Stress
Take action now. Write a list of 100 blog post ideas. Yes that is a hard one but you will be amazed at the ideas you come up with. It will definitely help when you are thinking “What will I blog about today or this week?”
My lovely gift from Carly at Smaggle. Empower-mint Tea!
Batching and productivity
Carly said that I should ‘Think like a waiter”. I thought this comment was odd but it was very clever. Waiters don’t come and get one plate. They get serval and take them all to the kitchen at the same time. The same goes for your blog. You should not sit down to do just one task, you should use your time to do several. Only go to your kitchen once not several times a day.
Never sit down without an idea. I for one think I had some great ideas then I sat down to stare at the computer for ages and wonder why I bothered. Having my big list of post ideas will come in handy and make sure that I don’t waste my time in the future.
Know your best hours to work. I for one love to work during the day and sometimes at night. Although I find myself more productive and awake during the day I do more during these hours. I find the night time better for research and idea gathering than actually writing anything.
Take action now! What items can you batch? Choose 3 or so items that you can organise easily.“When you are consuming you should be creating” Christina from Hair Romance @ Problogger.
Photo Walk while at Problogger
Scheduling tools and organisational hacks
Set a timer for tasks. If you know how long you can spend on each task then you will not spend all day on something. I know I have done that and it is easy to get carried away.
Don’t Multitask. I think I do multitasking well but doing everything is not helpful as you only get a little bit done of each task. I have taken to shut down all my social media sites and just write posts in word to not distract me. This is also a good tool as then you can make sure your post is well constructed and spell checked.
Google Analytics – Check what is working and what is not via Google. When is the right time and days to post? If you figure out what is working then you can organise yourself to create more content like that and know when it is a good idea to share your content.
Why not plan out your next month of blogging so that you are super organised. My aim is to have more months planned so that I am ready with ideas and posts ready to go live. What about you?
A close up of the fab lights at RACV Royal Pines while at Problogger
Brandon created and founded a company called, “Crazy Dog Apps” he was just 16 when he did this and still at school. The business created the following apps, iparkedhere, Petrescue, App Making Guide and AusBuy. Brandon has also been nominated three years in a row as one of the most successful entrepreneurs under 30. Plus he was also on the show, “Beauty and the Geek” (So if you recognise him this might be why)
Persistence is the key to success!
Brandon got kicked out of school at 12 years of age (Due to severe ADHD), started two degrees that he did not finish, has not paid for any marketing for his business and cannot code.
At 14 years he was drinking
At 15 years he was hanging around a bad crowd. Drinking, smoking weed
Decided after witnessing some bad experiences decided he wanted to turn his life around.
So how has he been so successful..????
Brandon had some great ideas for an app and approached development companies to help him bring his ideas into reality. However they quoted over $70k and also laughed him out of the office.
He eventually teamed up with a family friend that had experience in IT. One thing that I loved about Brandon’s talk was that he did not give up when he did not have all the skills to bring his vision to life. He believed enough that it would happen. He surrounded himself with people that would help and kept on moving forward.
He has also used his success good. He wanted to develop an app to help the Red Cross with Blood Donation but that did not eventuate. However it was his determination and commitment to helping others that also drew him to develop Petrescue which is an app to help the RSCPA have pets homed rather than destroyed if they cannot be found homes.
Brandon was a very positive speaker and showed you that if you have passion, get up and go also the drive you can accomplish your goals. It also made me feel better knowing that if I don’t have all the skills that should not matter, as long as I can find the right people to help me. My only problem with finding skilled people is that I am not flush with cash and most people want to be paid. Maybe I could repay in kind with something that they need doing, it could function like the barter system (it is a thought and you never know it might work)
Having fun at Problogger. Photo taken by the lovely Carly Findlay
I had a great time although exhausting (So much info overload and just too much to do) at Problogger. It was fabulous to network with other like-minded bloggers and looking forward to next year. I hope to be able to go, but not sure due to having a new baby it might be difficult. We will see.
The lovely people at the RACV Royal Pines were amazing. Nothing was any trouble. The venue, food and service was fantastic! Loved it. If you need a place to stay on the Gold Coast I would highly recommend The Royal Pines.
Did you go to Problogger this year? What was your favourite session?
I love hearing all the inspirational speakers as it gives me focus and drive to keep going, but also fabulous ideas on how I can make things better for my own blog.
My one thing or things to action after Problogger
I would like to thank my sponsor for my car rental, Red Spot Car Rentals. They gave me a fabulous car to get from the airport to the conference.
Branson went on to say that unless you have a job that requires you to fly a plane or the like, you probably can do your job remotely. He even went on to say, “Companies that forbid the practice, such as Yahoo, put pressure on families and limit opportunities for women, according to the Virgin Group founder.”
Brilliant. Yes you have hit the nail on the head! Many women myself included are highly skilled and educated. They wish to give back but due to family commitments it makes things difficult. Working from home is ideal. You don’t have travel. You can focus on the tasks at hand and of course get more done. There are so much on offer now to make telecommuting easy for all. There is Skype, Google Docs, Dropbox and more. Why not hang onto your best assets and knowledgeable employees that want to work and will go above and beyond.
Happy that she has a work from home job.
If you find that one or a few staff members are not pulling their weight. Well you give warnings and then you make the decision to either let them go or forfeit the telecommute option.
I for one would give 120% to be able to work remotely in a good job with great pay. (I have noted that lately some work from home roles are underpaying for what they expect you to do. One full time role was a management role and expected 40+ hours a week, conference calls overseas via Skype and to manage maybe 100+ websites. This they were paying at least 60K less than the going rate for this position. Not sure if it was the company or the fact that since you are working from home they have undervalued everything. The work is still the same, the job is still the same so therefore the pay should be the same as well. What do you think? I do accept that you don’t need to travel anywhere for your role and that is a bonus but why should you get short changed?)
Employers are doing themselves a disservice. Brain drain is a big issue. It does not have to be simply mothers or fathers wishing for a more flexible family friendly lifestyle. If you don’t treat people well, they walk. Loosing staff that know all your processes is tough. It takes a long while before you can train new staff to know what the former staff knew inside and out. This is a cost to the business in knowledge and also to money. You need to retrain and rehire.
Many employers offer you the world and then don’t deliver. They promise flexible work and telecommuting options, however whenever you seek to use this option there are myriad of excuses for why it cannot be applied to you and your role. You have not been here long enough was what I always got told, and another amazing one, we need you here to manage things.
One place I worked for I was there five years and I lived the furthest away. A day here or there would have been amazing, but no it was not to be. The girl who lived less than 30 mins away was always working from home. You would have thought three years somewhere and putting in extra hours and working on projects that were successful would have qualified. No it did not.
I wonder what the magical number is that qualifies you to work from home from a corporate or organisations point of view. Is it what value you can give them? Or more like is it seen as a perk and not a value to the business?
In February 2013, Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s Chief Executive put a stop to employees working from home. She believes that working side by side is better and more helpful for business and staff members. I do understand that interaction is nice and having catch ups is always something to look forward to. This can still happen if you have a fortnightly or monthly catch-up with say a team that is working from home and see how everyone is going. Maybe on these times you get everyone to come into the office to touch base and have a day in the office, although the rest of the work is from home. Now there’s an idea. What do you think?
Marissa Mayer is not the only one that has adopted this notion of side by side working. In the Sydney Morning Herald article it also mentioned that Patrick Pichette who used to work at Google as the Chief Financial Officer has also the belief that working side by side is more productive. How did Pichette work somewhere where they encouraged working remotely with “Google Apps” to allow employees to work from home to now saying that working side by side is more productive? In the article Pichette says the following:
“”The surprising question we get is: ‘How many people telecommute at Google?’ ” Mr Pichette said at a talk in Sydney on Monday. “And our answer is: ‘As few as possible’.
“It’s somewhat counterintuitive. People think, ‘Well, because you’re at Google you can work from anywhere.’ Yes, you can work from anywhere, but many just commute to offices . . . Working from the office is really important.”
Coffee and tools to work from home. Off to get a lot done!
I do understand that brainstorming and bouncing ideas off people does help a great deal, however quiet time to reflect and think is needed also. Maybe it could be a bit of both, some days in the office and some days working from home?
It is 2015 and more kids are tech savvy and will be wanting flexibility when they enter the workforce. I want it now and I’m not considered a kid. Why are we still that rigid when it comes to having staff work from home? As long as the job is getting done that is the main thing.
From the businesses point of view it is a cost saving if staff don’t have come to the office and have a permanent desk, phone and computer. They don’t need to provide this if you have a remote role (I know some places might give you a phone or laptop but that is rare). All they need to do is to maybe have a hot desk when you come in for team meetings and catch ups with your manager or team. Easy really. I just don’t see why it is so hard, especially in this age of technology and options.
I believe companies that don’t offer work from home and flexible options will not attract the right people in the future. We are moving to a work environment where you don’t have to be in an office. You could be on a beach or in your house with your pj’s on. As long as you are hitting your KPI’s the rest does not matter. For major corporates to not look beyond an office job is silly in my book, there are a lot of people with excellent skills that can do a great job from a home office, they just need a chance to show you they can.
What are your thoughts? Have you tried to work from home? Were you successful? Do you have a job that is a telecommute role? If so please share how it works for you.
Let us know your thoughts. Why not continue the discussion on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
Today is international women’s day, “International Women’s Day (IWD), originally called International Working Women’s Day, is marked on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women’s economic, political and social achievements.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Womens_Day, Accessed: 8th of March, 2012)
There were events here in the Blue Mountains today and tomorrow, however it is freezing here so have not ventured out, other than taking the kids to playgroup. It seems to have gotten colder from earlier today, or do I just need another hot tea? So please celebrate the day of women today and all female achievement. Be kind to your mother, sister, and other female relatives.
Today is also my Aunties birthday so that is a great day to have a birthday, wished her a great day and will see her for a family get together on the weekend, really looking forward to that.
Now onto the topic of empowering women; Women have made great strides forward, working, education, having bank accounts, voting, credit cards, not having to get married, able to purchase their own property, and much more.
However there are still some things that I feel have not changed.
1. The fact that a woman still does all or the majority of the housework. This happened before I had kids and I still do it. Although I was never good in this department
2. If you are female and in child baring years then some people don’t hire you due to the risk associated if you get pregnant and go on maternity leave. Some women will never have kids, some will and work as well, some will have kids and not go back to work for a variety of reasons.
Only on the 5th of March it has been reported in news.com.au, that Virgin Blue has discriminated against female employees. This was due to the fact that they had children and wanted to return to their roles after their maternity leave. The ladies in this case were told that their positions were no longer available and made redundant. Basically, they were sacked and the company hired a new person to replace these women.
3. Told at university that as you are female you will get underpaid, this happened this year. There was an article about a Veterinary Student at Sydney University and she was told that as a graduate she would not earn what her male peers earn. What a terrible thing to be told. Why belittle a woman or anyone’s experience or skill due to sex alone. Why is this accepted in a teaching institution and in the world still? We are living in 2012 not 1950, or the 1900’s.
Below is a quote from Ms Daymond:
”When I graduated, starting salaries seemed to be definitely in favour of males and historically it had always been that way,” she said. ”We were told that we’d be earning $10,000 a year less than men, which was a bit disheartening. No one really told us why, so it was something we had to fight to equalise it a bit.” After all, more than 80 per cent of those now studying veterinary science are women.” (http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/salary-gap-female-graduates-get-ahead-20120205-1qzsj.html, Accessed: 8th March, 2012)
4. No flexible roles to allow educated and women who want to work, who have a family. These women are mainly the primary care takers and have the responsibility for taking kids to school, picking them up and so on. With all the technology, why is it that the only role is in the office full time? Why cannot you have a job that is say 2 days a week in the office and other days you can do the work when you can fit it in to your day. I know this issue is not only for women, more flexible roles are not available for all really. I would have thought that it would be more cost effective to have employees work remotely. However, the thought from the employer is how do I make sure they do the work? Are these employees trustworthy? Are they going to abuse the privilege? I think with this day and age of different work types and places you can work thanks to the computer, mobile, and tablets, why not? If these people don’t perform you can fire them if they don’t meet targets.
How do the above help the young girls soon to be women in our society?
I have 2 wonderful, smart, creative, beautiful girls. I want them to be able to do anything they put their minds to. It does not matter what they end up doing, as long as they enjoy it and do it well.
Why is it acceptable in 2012 to tell a woman/girl that they will get underpaid due to their sex? You may as well say don’t try. Don’t go to school and be good at anything. It makes me so angry that this still happens. If this was said to a man/boy, I am sure it would be a completely different story. Men would tell you to go shove it. Why is it not o.k. for women to do the same? If it was left to these men to hire women, then they would not ever work. The world has a population with over half of it women. We would be in a very bad place if we just rewarded men and did not hire or promote women. The whole idea of saying in university that women will get less pay is buying into this inequality of the sexes. Roles should be paid according to skills, education, and fit in the workplace (how you fit in with the culture, leader or manger and so on, how you are valued at your place of work), sex to determine pay or a future outcome that might never happen, like children is just ridiculous.
A male friend who I was commenting on the above issue thinks that there is no issue in under paying women who might have children, or not. I asked why he felt this way and he said that employers were mitigating risk, Risk of women having children and leaving their organisation. Mind you some women don’t want kids or never have kids for whatever reason.
I would have loved to have still been working, however we have no family near us, child care places are very expensive, and as we have 2 kids have to times it all by 2. I would have to commute to the city, so it would be a long day. No day care centre is up when I would need them, so I would have to hire a nanny. Now that the kids are in pre-school, I would have to have someone to drop them off and pick them up, stay with them until I get home, or at least till their daddy is home.
The wage that I could earn would be good, however all would be eaten away by the nanny, and care takers for the kids. I would be racing everywhere for work, racing home, and racing to schools, and by the time I got home, I would be exhausted. So if there was a role that worked a couple of days at the office, even part time, then the rest of the week at home and during the evening, that is something that I can do now. Other options currently I cannot do as I don’t have the cash or the help.
I want to empower my girls to get the best education so that they can soar to the highest height of their career, I want them to be financially independent, to own their property by the time they are 18 so they have an asset, and make them understand that the world is their oyster. I do understand that some of these things might not happen, and that is fine (like the property one and it depends on the strengths and interests of the child where they will end up) however I think that it is a damn shame, that we are in 2012 and we are still dealing with getting underpaid, and discrimination just due to our sex.
What are your thoughts on empowering girls if you have them? Why do you think that this mindset is still around that women should be underpaid? I for one think that if we have less time in the workforce due to looking after kids we should be paid more. Please send in your comments and thoughts.
Today is international women’s day, “International Women’s Day (IWD), originally called International Working Women’s Day, is marked on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women’s economic, political and social achievements.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Womens_Day, Accessed: 8th of March, 2012)
There were events here in the Blue Mountains today and tomorrow, however it is freezing here so have not ventured out, other than taking the kids to playgroup. It seems to have gotten colder from earlier today, or do I just need another hot tea? So please celebrate the day of women today and all female achievement. Be kind to your mother, sister, and other female relatives.
Today is also my Aunties birthday so that is a great day to have a birthday, wished her a great day and will see her for a family get together on the weekend, really looking forward to that.
Now onto the topic of empowering women; Women have made great strides forward, working, education, having bank accounts, voting, credit cards, not having to get married, able to purchase their own property, and much more.
However there are still some things that I feel have not changed.
1. The fact that a woman still does all or the majority of the housework. This happened before I had kids and I still do it. Although I was never good in this department
2. If you are female and in child baring years then some people don’t hire you due to the risk associated if you get pregnant and go on maternity leave. Some women will never have kids, some will and work as well, some will have kids and not go back to work for a variety of reasons.
Only on the 5th of March it has been reported in news.com.au, that Virgin Blue has discriminated against female employees. This was due to the fact that they had children and wanted to return to their roles after their maternity leave. The ladies in this case were told that their positions were no longer available and made redundant. Basically, they were sacked and the company hired a new person to replace these women.
3. Told at university that as you are female you will get underpaid, this happened this year. There was an article about a Veterinary Student at Sydney University and she was told that as a graduate she would not earn what her male peers earn. What a terrible thing to be told. Why belittle a woman or anyone’s experience or skill due to sex alone. Why is this accepted in a teaching institution and in the world still? We are living in 2012 not 1950, or the 1900’s.
Below is a quote from Ms Daymond:
”When I graduated, starting salaries seemed to be definitely in favour of males and historically it had always been that way,” she said. ”We were told that we’d be earning $10,000 a year less than men, which was a bit disheartening. No one really told us why, so it was something we had to fight to equalise it a bit.” After all, more than 80 per cent of those now studying veterinary science are women.” (http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/salary-gap-female-graduates-get-ahead-20120205-1qzsj.html, Accessed: 8th March, 2012)
4. No flexible roles to allow educated and women who want to work, who have a family. These women are mainly the primary care takers and have the responsibility for taking kids to school, picking them up and so on. With all the technology, why is it that the only role is in the office full time? Why cannot you have a job that is say 2 days a week in the office and other days you can do the work when you can fit it in to your day. I know this issue is not only for women, more flexible roles are not available for all really. I would have thought that it would be more cost effective to have employees work remotely. However, the thought from the employer is how do I make sure they do the work? Are these employees trustworthy? Are they going to abuse the privilege? I think with this day and age of different work types and places you can work thanks to the computer, mobile, and tablets, why not? If these people don’t perform you can fire them if they don’t meet targets.
How do the above help the young girls soon to be women in our society?
I have 2 wonderful, smart, creative, beautiful girls. I want them to be able to do anything they put their minds to. It does not matter what they end up doing, as long as they enjoy it and do it well.
Why is it acceptable in 2012 to tell a woman/girl that they will get underpaid due to their sex? You may as well say don’t try. Don’t go to school and be good at anything. It makes me so angry that this still happens. If this was said to a man/boy, I am sure it would be a completely different story. Men would tell you to go shove it. Why is it not o.k. for women to do the same? If it was left to these men to hire women, then they would not ever work. The world has a population with over half of it women. We would be in a very bad place if we just rewarded men and did not hire or promote women. The whole idea of saying in university that women will get less pay is buying into this inequality of the sexes. Roles should be paid according to skills, education, and fit in the workplace (how you fit in with the culture, leader or manger and so on, how you are valued at your place of work), sex to determine pay or a future outcome that might never happen, like children is just ridiculous.
A male friend who I was commenting on the above issue thinks that there is no issue in under paying women who might have children, or not. I asked why he felt this way and he said that employers were mitigating risk, Risk of women having children and leaving their organisation. Mind you some women don’t want kids or never have kids for whatever reason.
I would have loved to have still been working, however we have no family near us, child care places are very expensive, and as we have 2 kids have to times it all by 2. I would have to commute to the city, so it would be a long day. No day care centre is up when I would need them, so I would have to hire a nanny. Now that the kids are in pre-school, I would have to have someone to drop them off and pick them up, stay with them until I get home, or at least till their daddy is home.
The wage that I could earn would be good, however all would be eaten away by the nanny, and care takers for the kids. I would be racing everywhere for work, racing home, and racing to schools, and by the time I got home, I would be exhausted. So if there was a role that worked a couple of days at the office, even part time, then the rest of the week at home and during the evening, that is something that I can do now. Other options currently I cannot do as I don’t have the cash or the help.
I want to empower my girls to get the best education so that they can soar to the highest height of their career, I want them to be financially independent, to own their property by the time they are 18 so they have an asset, and make them understand that the world is their oyster. I do understand that some of these things might not happen, and that is fine (like the property one and it depends on the strengths and interests of the child where they will end up) however I think that it is a damn shame, that we are in 2012 and we are still dealing with getting underpaid, and discrimination just due to our sex.
What are your thoughts on empowering girls if you have them? Why do you think that this mindset is still around that women should be underpaid? I for one think that if we have less time in the workforce due to looking after kids we should be paid more. Please send in your comments and thoughts.
I met this wonderful couple on Australia Day, they run their own production company. I did not get the details of the company, but from the information that I knew, I goolged and investigated. Found them and now have sent an introduction email to see if there might be any part time roles to help out. Latley, I have been itching to get back into something that I am trained and like to do. Film, media production (I have a background in film/video, media production and the internet) is the thing that I have been dreaming about but also starting my little business from home.
We will see what comes of it. Who knows at least I have met some new people that are lovely, so it does not matter if I get a job just a connection is nice enough. Does anyone have a great story of bumping into just the right person at the right time in their life. Would love to hear of some great inspiration stories.
