Magnetic Blog Builders

Information Overload? How to Choose What Blogs to Follow

April 10, 2010 By Cara Lumen

“I just can’t learn any more!” was my thought as I read a list in one on one of my favorite bloggers suggesting more people I might follow. “I’m full up!” Have you ever felt that way?

There is so much fabulous free information out there and I want to know all of it. But I can’t. I have to make some choices regarding the time I want to spend and the type of information I want to learn.

What do you need to know?

As entrepreneurs we love to learn new things and we have a lot of interests. And if we follow them all we will be stretched out and overwhelmed. One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is to learn to focus on one thing at a time, learn it, own it and then move on. So what do you need to know now?

I’m really into blogging. I love doing it. It meets my needs as a writer, a creative person, a teacher, and a person in business. So what I want to learn more of right now is blogging.

As a writer I have followed Brian Clark in CopyBlogger for several years www.copyblogger.com
Through him I joined Third Tribe which is a fascinating forum with great interaction and help
Also from Brian’s blog I found Darren Rouse of Problogger who is an extremely rich resource.
An unexpected find is Glen of Viper Chill – a 20 year old English lad living in South Africa with lots to say.
And I read Chris Brogan at www.chrisbrogan.com who writes on social media and change.
Seth Godin always makes me think
Mike Dooly’s Notes from the Universe feeds me spiritually.

That’s today’s list. I don’t know what it will be next year. I’m going to add more on social media and keeping my eye out for the right emarketing resource. I can’t read them all. I have to choose.

How to choose

Choose what appeals to you right now. What do you need to know? What projects are you working on that you need to learn more about? What marketing strategies do you want to develop? I keep seeing great resources for video but I’m not ready to add that. I love my radio show but haven’t looked for blogs about that but I could. You don’t have to subscribe forever – just for now. And when you don’t read them any more unsubscribe.

Keep your list current

Unsubscribing is an OK things to do. I find I’m unsubscribing from people who send me posts on Sundays and holidays. I seem to be unsubscribing from people who are always telling me it’s my last chance, or only so many widgets are left for me to buy. That’s not my kind of reaching out. Look at the blogs you have coming to you and do a little house cleaning. You do not want to open your email and have so many interesting things to read that you feel pressured or overwhelmed. Choose the number of blogs you want to follow and read them. It’s more important then you read something than it is for you to read everything.

How much time should you spend?

We need to spend time working on our business as well as in our business and business reading is certainly a part of that. Whether you take time to read valuable books like Seth Godin’s Lynchpin, Are you Indispensible, or Roy Clarks It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For: Why Every Extraordinary Business Is Driven by Purpose, or Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling, if you spend part of your day reading blogs or both is up to you. But continuing your education is important. You should learn or explore further some new facet of your business every day.

Don’t leave out the personal development blogs like Leo Babanta. Zen Habits Seth Godin’s blog is a mix of practical, philosophical and inspirational. My own Passionately on Purpose blog is a mix like that. Mike Dooleys’ Notes from the Universe is very inspirational. You are your business and you must grow yourself too.

I spend 45 minutes every day reading posts and following links. Because I teach and coach I copy and paste many posts into my Coaching Library for my own learning process and for that of my clients. All this blogging information enriches my coaching for clients in Magnetic Blog Builders In my emagazine Passionately on Purpose I now add links to articles I find that are interesting. And to resources I have found. Again, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with new resources and plugins to check out. Choose what you need to know right now. And learn it.

Give back what you learn

When you discover something interesting that you find makes a difference for yourself blog about it. Share it with others. Often in reading these posts an idea will come up for me to take one point and develop it into my thoughts on the topic. For instance, when I wrote “Are You a Natural Entrepreneur” I read four or five other posts on the topic but ultimately made my own list of valuable traits from my own life experience. I bet that if you spent 45 minutes reading anything related to your business or your personal growth you could come up with 10 blog post ideas. You receive and you pass it forward.

Follow the links

Every well optimized blog has links to both additional internal articles of their own, or to outside sources. Guest bloggers that you like are worth checking out. If you don’t subscribe now, perhaps make a list of your next choices so when you are ready to add one you will have some relevant choices.

It’s called the Information Highway for a reason

Never before have we had access to so much valuable information. Whatever you are interested in there is a blog about. Go find them and join the community by posting comments and getting involved. Only by checking them out will you know what blogs you want to follow right now.

How the Thesis Theme for WordPress Will Set You Free

April 7, 2010 By Cara Lumen

by Cara Lumen

The Thesis Theme for WordPress by Chris Pearson is a bit like magic. It turns you into a credible web site and blog designer by its very existence. It gets you out the blogging door fast with exactly what you need to start getting noticed immediately.

You can easily Design your site like a pro!

Thesis is a search engine optimized HTML + CSS + PHP framework for WordPress that does all the complex work for you. It has an innovative options panel that lets you customize your blog or website like a professional. You don’t have to know coding you just get to point and click!

Change your design at will

Thesis takes the “scary part” out of making design and optimization changes on your site. For instance, with Thesis you can change from two columns to three columns with a one click. You can change the look and feel of your blog/web site by making simple selections in the options panel. Thesis is easy to customize. The basic Thesis Theme design is clean, professional and extre¬¬mely versatile.

Developers and designers are busy developing additional themes for Thesis. I particularly love the themes designed by Bill Stillwell at Thesis Styles They are elegant and strategically designed.

Thesis does the hard part – it optimizes!!!

One of the major reasons the Thesis Theme is so valuable is that it is set up to optimize every page and every post easily and effectively. You just type in the keywords and metatags and Thesis puts them where they need to go to attract the search engines.

You can track your statistics three or four ways which allows you to see what’s working and do more of that. If you’re after search engine traffic, (aren’t we all) you’ll be fast out of the gate with the Thesis Theme. It offers you airtight optimization and frees you to focus on your content.

You will be part of the thriving Thesis Community

Thesis has real live people ready to help when you have questions. When you purchase a Thesis theme, you have a lifetime subscription to the theme. You can login any time and download the latest updated version. That will easily keep your website up-to-date and on the digital edge of an internet presence. With Thesis, you’re not buying a great WordPress theme, you’re joining an amazing community that continually supports and improves on that theme.

Ready, Set, Blog

At Magnetic Blog Builders we recommend Thesis to our clients. Our Ready Set Blog Package begins with coaching sessions from me. Together we define your focus, your niche, work on your brand, develop your marketing plan and start your editorial calendar. Nancy Hendrickson is my partner in Magnetic Blog Builders and she will set up your blog or web site for you and she even does some keyword research for you to get you moving in the right direction. We personalize your plug-ins to fit your marketing strategies. I teach you how to optimize each post and page and at the end of four weeks you are well on your way to attracting the people you are meant to serve. And with the Thesis theme you are in the driver’s seat when it comes to adding pages, changing content, and optimizing your site. It gives you the independence and freedom to do your thing!

Are you serious about your web strategy?

Using WordPress with a Thesis theme is actually a small investment. It gets you off the ground fast, it has all the difficult optimization part done for you and you can change your design with the flick of a mouse. Think professional, think optimized, think ease of use and check out the Thesis Theme and set yourself up like a pro!

Whether you want a flexible web site, a well optimized blog or a combination, the Thesis theme is the platform for serious blogging professionals.

Why It’s a Good Time to Hire a Coach

March 23, 2010 By Cara Lumen

by Cara Lumen

A coach can save you money. What, you say? But a coach costs money and that’s a consideration in today’s economy. But can you remember a time you didn’t read the directions and ended up with several mysterious pieces left over? Or the preverbal don’t-ask-for-directions-I-can-find-it-myself attitude that put you miles out of your way? A coach helps you create a map of where you want to go and then gives you step-by-step GPS directions. Of course you’re going to get exactly where you want to go. And that straight line from here to there can save you money.

A coach can keep you from making mistakes – wasting time and money going in the wrong direction

A coach holds your vision, sees the best route and clears the path ahead for you

Here’s the deal – if you don’t know where you are going you will certainly end up someplace else. A coach knows the territory. She knows the shortcuts and the pitfalls. She knows the watering holes and rest stops. She is a valuable guide for your journey.

But first you both have to figure out exactly where you want to go. That’s called laying the foundation – your target community, your niche, your branding, and the type of service and products you want to offer.

This work, done right, will save you hours of going in the wrong direction

Step 1 – Know Where You Are Going

A Coach Knows What You Need to Get You There

Remember the old trail bosses? They helped the travelers know what supplies they needed and how much they could actually carry. You know the stories of scattered furniture along the way because those items, beloved or not, were just too heavy to carry. Well, a coach can help you choose only the things you need to move you to your destination. You can leave the rest behind for another time and trip. You travel light, you travel fast.

I have a client who is an extraordinary visionary. She thinks up fabulous projects. Big ones. Time-consuming ones. And my job is to keep her grounded so she completes basic things like her web presence and sets up systems to begin to build her community. It’s hard sometimes, her ideas are tantalizing to me too, but my job is to be certain she has a strong foundation and puts the basic things in place like a web presence and personal branding.

Step 2 – Trust your coach to take you one step at a time and choose the steps you need to take next.

A Coach is a Source of Wisdom

Do you want to get your guidance from someone who is just learning or someone who has been there, done that? You want the expert, of course, the person who is excited about their area of expertise and continues to study it and grow wiser in it and explore ways to teach it to others. That deep knowledge and experience helps them guide you on your journey and choose the right path for you.

Once you find that perfect coach/guide pay attention. When there is homework, do it on time. When you start to go off on yet another great idea, allow her to pull you back. If you have a project, allow her to help you break it down into small steps and stay with it till that phase is completed. A good coach will honor your personal way of working, but she won’t let you aimlessly wander off the path

Step 3 – Listen to your coach and do what she says

A coach can keep you from overwhelm

Entrepreneurs have tons of ideas and we can get pulled off course and get stuck in the mud of overwhelm. A coach can see that pitfall ahead, and will help you focus on one step at a time instead of the mountain you are trying to climb. That saves you time, and preserves your energy for the task of moving forward.

Step 4 – Trust the coach to help you choose your best ideas.

A coach is your motivational partner

Working alone is great and it can be lonely. How do you keep yourself on target when you are the boss? A coach is a motivational partner – a person who will call you on your “stuff”, creatively find ways around your blocks, shore you up when you falter, and stay by your side as the partner she is.

Is it time for you to hire a coach?

I’m a coach. I’ve had a lot of training. I’m a Certified Book Yourself Solid Coach which makes me really good at building strong foundations. I’m a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach which makes me really good at creative, innovative, inexpensive ways to market yourself. And I’m a prolific writer, so developing rich content for the internet is a talent and a passion. I can help you build an authentic business from your inside out.

And I’ve added a partner to help you with one of the steps. We are the Magnetic Blog Builders If you want to establish a magnetic web presence, you begin with me. We center and focus your vision and start moving toward your goal. Shortly after we begin you work with my partner Nancy Hendrickson, the WordPress expert, who will help you create either a web site, a blog or a combination of the two. It takes both of us to get your web presence positioned and aimed in the right direction. Then you’ll be off like the proverbial arrow – right on target to attract the people you are meant to serve.