XFactor is a business deal clean and simple – its a TV production designed to entertain and draw in viewers, ad revenue and produce factory made “talented” artists to throw into the music world and reap the benefits of what that brings.

Watching the occasional episode I have come up with five business tips that we can extract from such a show

1. You dont have to be the most talented or intelligent person in order to be successful – of course you have to work hard – until you bleed out of your f*cking eyeballs in some cases. If you have a power house behind you (a brand, network or something a like) then making moves, getting through those doors and progressing can really help. Work hard, network and learn as much as you can.
2. If you fail (or get kicked out of the competition) that is not the end of the world – you could always be brought back, come back next year, try harder or go it alone – you do not NEED XFactor to be successful. You don’t need the accelerator, mentor, educational piece of paper in order to succeed. Even if you fail, drop out or quit – you can always try again.
3. The work doesn’t end when you have got the record contract, or turned a profit – thats just the start. You have a long way to go – hours in the studio, recording, producing, promoting – working, networking, fine tuning the business. When the cameras turn off, when the business breaks even – it  doesn’t mean you can rest.
4. Judges or mentors are a good thing – they can really help to guide you, give advice, open doors and generally be there for you in any shape or form you need them without there being TOO much bias involved. Find a mentor – learn from them, let them show you the roads that are available to be taken – you don’t have to take them – but listen to the advice. Mentors are a great asset to entrepreneurs – mentor groups/networking events are a great place to start.
5. The songs/products/ideas that are chosen for you by your mentor/judge or those you choose yourself –  do not  necessarily have to be or reflect where you end up/want to get to. You might start singing Gaga – but end up a rap star – just as you may start doing cupcakes and end up selling high price jewellery. Just remember – Nintendo started out making cards back in 1889 – now they are an entertainment/gaming company. 

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Link building top five tips

1. Gain links from a variety of sources
Putting “all your eggs in one basket” when link building only takes an unfriendly algorithm update to demolish all those painstaking months of work. Obtaining links from a variety of sources is a more natural way to build your link profile in addition to being steadier and more secure.

2. Use a combination of follow and no-follow
More aggressive SEO tactics are likely to dismiss no-follow links as they don’t pass on link juice to the targeted site. These links from sites (social media sites for example) can be a great way to drive traffic, encourage recommendations and increase brand awareness. No follows are included in many of the available link-analysis tools link counts; they still provide value – if not link juice. There is a chance too that search engines may look on sites with few or no no-follows with suspicion, and we all know how much the search engines hate links being gained specifically for optimisation purposes.

3. Build links consistently over time
We all know there are tools out there to gain thousands of incoming links in one hit – we also know the majority of these links are likely to be “spammy” and of low quality. It’s natural to build links overtime; as we forge connections through social media or new clients, it is inevitable to then build links through recommendations, testimonials and new content sharing. As well as looking for variety, look for consistency and remember – the link building is never done!

4. Look to get links from sites relevant to your industry
The search engines are all about relevancy – why would they rank a non-relevant site in the SERP’s? Users are trying to find what they need; linking sites relevant to what your site is about can give more credibility, adding extra weight to your relevancy ranking. As you build industry contacts, your links will grow.

5. Link to different pages of your site
It’s unnatural to have every link point to the home page of your site. In reference in particular to larger sites that more likely to cover a bigger variety of topics within their pages, there will be topics covered on different pages that may warrant different links. Of course some pages such as contact and the deeper pages don’t provide much value in relevancy if linked to, however topical pages are often relevant and can complement your link profile.

These five tips will help you create a natural link building profile. Remembering links can take a while to do their work, having patience and the foresight to assess where links will be coming from are also valuable attributes when optimising your site’s link status.

Charlotte Waller of SEO Gemini

Charlotte Waller specialises in small business SEO; visit her site for more information and articles.

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First of all is Cranking by Merlin Mann of 43 Folders fame – http://www.43folders.com/2011/04/22/cranking which is a very emotional story of how life can throw you twists and turns – very much worth while reading.

Following that – its all your fault by James Altucher http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/05/its-your-fault/ this is one I tend to read and re-read over and over along with all of his other blog posts that have a real meaning to the different aspects of ups and downs in life.

Finally one to watch – Scared Shitless again by Merlin Mann http://www.43folders.com/2011/03/28/scared-shitless (video included below) – no description needed – just watch.

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#IgniteCardiff

Wednesday night (19th October) saw the 7th Ignite Cardiff event kick off – it was my first Ignite event despite having done plenty of talks in the past, the difference with Ignite is that you have only 5 minutes to put your talk across to people and worse still you only get 20 slides which move forward automatically every 15 seconds!

The evening opened up at 6:30 in the upstairs of O’Neils bar in central Cardiff and the room quickly filled up with all types of interesting people from those who just happened to be told by a friend about the event to those who were actively tracking such events around the country. I got to meet many people during the night as Ignite proves to be not only an interesting event for its talks but also for the great networking possibilities all that for free….and free beer on entry – how can you not go? Looking forward already to the next Ignite Cardiff.

On the night there were 8 speakers for Ignite Cardiff and I honestly enjoyed each and every one of them.

• Noreen Blanluet (@beamazingtoday) spoke about love and how it comes into our life with a talk called “Love, Actually”
• Alyson Fielding (@alysonf) gave a talk about the Apollo 11 moon landing and titled ‘Apollo 11 (Or: what hammocks, porridge and theremins have to do with the moon landing)’ which I found very interesting indeed
• Ed Barnett (@Ed_Barnett) had me in stitches with his talk on “How to live longer” what can I say – you had to see this one! And for those who did – remember to purchase his live longer package!
• Warren Seymour (@woogoose) spoke about “A brief history of selfishness” which was an informative talk about history and how certain characters played out their lives – a must see.
• Edward Gomez (@zemogle) first up to the stage and spoke about “Telescopes in strange places” – not as “weird” as it sounds – but interesting to see different telescope locations.
• Paul Parry (@Literallytsar) literally spoke about something people are passionate about which was well known ref “Alain Rolland” and where his alliances lie.
• John Haskell (@atlanticdash)  this big guy – a fireman – rowing across the Atlantic for charity – admitted he was not great at public speaking – but pulled it off nicely – great talk, great mission and everyone was donating on the night to the cause – YOU MUST TOO http://www.atlanticdash.co.uk/

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That’s what my good friend Annaliese Morgan asked recently on her blog.
There are so many different variations of how people define Entrepreneur be it the official Oxford definition

a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit

or perhaps this from BusinessZone

An entrepreneur sees an opportunity which others do not fully recognise, to meet an unsatisfied demand or to radically improve the performance of an existing business. They have unquenchable self-belief that this opportunity can be made real through hard work, commitment and the adaptability to learn the lessons of the market along the way

Either way you look at it, its clear that an Entrepreneur is someone who works hard to reach their goals, whether that be profit, happiness, freedom or perhaps some other form of achievement.

I am not going to go into whether or not I qualify “@seanprice on twitter" href="http://www.seanprice.co.uk/sean-price/" target="_blank">myself” to be an entrepreneur – as it stands, I work hard, I approach life and business in a way many would label entrepreneurial and I have been called an Entrepreneur and more many times however for now, I will settle for “that guy that works bloody hard!”

Oh and before I continue – please don’t tell me your a “mumpreneur” — ugh….it’s one of those terms which I believe is just wrong.

Moving on…

Whether you are 18, 28, 38 or 68 you can be an entrepreneur at any time, you do not have to be “born an entrepreneur” you can become an entrepreneur there is not a specific list of qualities or achievements that ultimately define the term entrepreneur however a general list of qualities that are thrown around very often (such as those listed by Annaliese) include but is obviously not limited to

• Passion and drive – being successful ultimately will surround doing something you love, if you do not enjoy and think about your business with great passion you are unlikely to succeed because passion and drive to accomplish something you enjoy counts for a lot when it comes to mental & physical drive.
  Feel like your losing your passion and drive?  – Take a step back, look at what your working on the grand scheme of things – is it really what you want? Have you lost track or veered off course of what you truly wanted to achieve? Consider looking into Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen and specifically the Horizons of Focus which covers how to work more productively and asses your goals in life and to be more stress free. Maybe just go back to basics?

• Motivation – Are you motivated? I am not going to suggest as others may do that you need to be up at 4am cranking away, working through until you end up with your face slammed on the keyboard as you fall asleep – that said a high level of motivation is required – just as passion and drive may cover this – motivation to wake up every morning sit down and work on your business is a whole new ball game especially if your seeing things are progressing as quick as you want them to be! Don’t give up!
  Losing motivation? Don’t forget you should be eating properly, exercise regularly and have appropriate breaks – remember to take time off every now and then to recharge your batteries
• Innovative or creativity – People usually fall into one or the other of these categories – your either a visual/creative type who then needs an innovative/business thinker to move forward the best possible (or vice-versa), that said its not uncommon for individuals in either category to become successful entrepreneurs alone however – joining forces with a counter part often leads to some of the best companies in the world – think of which “power couples” of entrepreneurs you can think of? (Microsoft? Apple?)
  Looking for your “other half”? Accelerator/Mentor programs such as Techstars and Y Combinator in the USA are great programs, or in the UK – we are severely lacking in this area I think – the options available for first time/serial or developing entrepreneurs are very limited. One of the few programs I have come across that seems to be working well is the YES (Young Entrepreneur Society) Network being run by Carly Ward that helps young people develop some of the necessary skills needed to become a more successful/confident person and network to find a possible business partner as they offer a mentor program as well as networking events.
• Courageous – @fuchsiaonline on twitter" href="http://twitter.com/fuchsiaonline" target="_blank">Annaliese said on this one “They hold their nerve. At 3am when everything seems it’s falling apart, this one nerve is sometimes the only thing left to hold on too but a successful entrepreneur will”
  The only thing I will add to this is that even when everything is falling apart (because it will feel like that) remember to take a step back, talk to others, share some of the problems and even if that means networking events/parties it is all good business. Remember to do what you do best to unwind, read a book, go for a run, you will feel like a breakdown is on its way but hang in there – you will overcome it.
• Hard working– This is key, without a doubt, its worth listening to Nigel Marsh talking about Work / Life balance however at TEDxSydney and most certainly watch the TEDxBoulder video from one of my favourite Venture Capitalists @bfeld" href="http://feld.com" target="_blank">Brad Feld who speaks about work / life balance with a partner and how working at 150% can be balanced with proper “disconnected” periods to enjoy life whilst running successful businesses.
• Intuitive –  “They posses the ability to use and trust their intuition.”
  A lot of entrepreneurs have issues with their EGO don’t let that get in the way too much, you can trust your own intuition but sometimes….listening to the advice of others will help you to overcome private/personal issues that may be affecting your business or a bottleneck in your business that they can help shed some light onto that perhaps you didn’t see – its always worth listening to others at least to hear them out if they have some experience in the area. For me personally I listen carefully to the words of these people (@RachelElnaugh @BeaMoneyMagnet @fuchsiaonline @AnEasierAffair @WestonGreenMan @ChuckJelly @Crystal_Jewels1) who I find are very intelligent and their advice, words of wisdom or general chit-chat can pick me right back up and get me back on track.
• Determined – Don’t complain about what is going on in the world that distracts you from your goals and business – yes the economy is down and will be for a while (stop complaining) nothing deters an entrepreneur from reaching what they want, the economy will bounce up and down and yes you most probably FAIL…probably OFTEN… guess what – it’s probably your fault but that is not to say you won’t bounce back!

• Huge energy – You will have ups and downs in business there is no doubt about that, but doing everything you can to maintain your high levels of energy will be crucial to doing the best you are capable of – again remember to keep fit and healthy. Unfit body will most likely lead to an unfit mind, your physical health really does attribute to your mental health over time. “Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax” — Getting Things Done (David Allen)

• Like to inspire and energise others – Don’t promote yourself but inspire others, teach, show things you know to others, run seminars, mentor somebody – you do not need to be a “professional/famous/certified/pay-per-hour mentor” even if you are giving help to somebody every now and then – why NOT share your experiences with others. Give back to the community and help the next generation of Entrepreneurs. Speak at events (I still have a handful of speaking events this year including Ignite Cardiff), just giving back something you have learnt via speaking, forums, blogging, twitter, whatever media you are comfortable with, it is worth the while.
• Non- conforming and independent – Most entrepreneurs don’t conform to the 9-5 cubicle lifestyle some even propose to work the 4 hour work week. Some people cause controversy or run campaigns on social media or traditional media in order to ramp up traffic to their website or interest in their business – these campaigns may drive interest but also may do the opposite. Remember being independent and non comforming is fine, but make sure you do not damage your brand – your company OR personal brand with how you act/behave both online and off. It’s important to remember that everything you do online is likely to be found by a future client, employee, employer, anyone – remember that at least.

And here at last is a piece of home work I strongly recommend watching the video below – one of my favourite serial entrepreneurs who is often mixing up controversial conversations is Jason Calacanis (@Jason) . As he describes how he tried and tried and tried again until he hit success, how the highs and lows feel. A great insight into what to expect going down the entrepreneurial road.

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I did however learn a few valuable lessons one of the most important of which was that you cannot expect to get in return the same level of effort you put out there and this is nothing specific in nature but can be applied to a variety of angles from advice, help & support, trust, confidence and much more.

Throughout last year many great things happened on both a personal and professional level including meeting some fantastic people of which I have learnt a tremendous amounts of information from and whom I respect enormously, people I can and have learnt a great deal from, some I continue to learn from and others how for unforeseen circumstances a further relationship has not been developed that said, I continue to watch inspired as they continue to grow and do fantastic things in business.

On the other hand there are those of whom I met and had a great relationship on a personal level and although against the better judgement of people whom I admire, I did progress into a business relationship. One of which has and continues to work fantastically from day one to present day. Then again there have been few instances where by they have not gone as planned.

Having recently gone on a week long vacation to “catch up with myself” being disconnected from the internet, emails and the pressure of client demand I managed to come up with some thoughts, ideas, directions for further execution on ideas and whilst thinking about what has succeeded and what has not I remembered about a very interesting person – James Altucher – controversial at all times but speaks so honest on every topic – right or wrong. The topic I remembered about was when he goes on to explain about how things are actually YOUR FAULT.

I HIGHLY suggest reading it…like…NOW…seriously stop reading this, go read his blog post then come back.

It’s all your fault, not someone elses, think about it, chances are…..its yourself that should take the blame. That is not saying you need to be miserable and sulk and moan about it all – but be mindful – you screwed up…..next time, DON’T!Reading through this article regularly as I do – really manages to bring me back to earth and realise, hey if X didn’t work out, well guess what, chances are it was my fault…I did not execute at the right time, I missed some detail, I did not make sure and follow-up that the package was delivered (royal mail may be to blame, but I should have followed up), it was my fault that I did not dedicate the appropriate time needed because I was using the time for my own priorities and not the wider picture, it was my fault that projects got delayed, giving the wrong instructions to others caused problems on a project or I wrongly estimated time frames

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So many a productivity guru such as Merlin Mann of 43 Folders fame and plenty others practise a ritual of emptying the inbox of your email, categorizing them and thus enabling a clear inbox, clear mind and maintaining said inbox should allow you to manage your email and work more efficiently.

A great article recently about achieving inbox zero over at Web Worker Daily explaining how during the first pass through you must archive or delete as much as possible to achieve inbox zero followed by setting up “must read and must respond” folders to archive incoming emails, filtering and labelling emails, turning off notifications and processing in chunks to get things cleared up – some of these tips are useful.

1. If you seriously do not need that email from Lads Mag weekly or Gardeners Delight – unsubscribe. If that takes too much effort – install the Unsubscribe for Gmail service – one click and it will unsubscribe you from multiple email time wasters all at once [Unsubscribe.com]
2. Batch your email – you do NOT need to be alerted every 2 – 3 minutes when a new email comes in, you do not need to CHECK your email every couple minutes to see if a new email has arrived. Do you seriously go look at the letter box every few minutes to see if a new piece of mail has arrived at your front door? Batch your email and only check and reply at certain times of the day.
3. You should not be looking at ALL your mail, if you have Gmail or Google Mail for businesses then make sure you turn on Priority inbox – let the little Google robots determine for you what is important and what is not. After a bit of training you will be able to just focus on the important stuff and not the mail that can wait until later. [Priority Inbox]
4.  Just because you remember at 11:45pm that you need to get that email to Joe for first thing in the morning doesn’t mean you have to send it right away because by 9am its probably lost under a huge pile of other email waiting for Joe to go through. Instead why not write it, send it at a scheduled time? Use Boomerang for Gmail which allows you to do JUST that…write emails, schedule to send later OR EVEN be sent back to you at a later date if you do not have the mental capacity for it right now! [Boomerang for Gmail]
5. Now just because its number 5 doesn’t mean its the least powerful in fact its the most powerful in my opinion but I feel you must have all the above four covered first off. AWAYFIND I don’t think I can give this service justice with my own words… Go get an account, register your Gmail account with them and then setup filters, even if its basic filtering that allows you to be in peace for a while. What Awayfind does is monitor your email and your calendar and then send you alerts to your iPhone or Email (alternate email is best) as to when an important email hits your actual inbox. So maybe your meeting with Joe for coffee tomorrow, but 3 hours before you are due to meet he drops you an email saying he cannot make it – well you had him scheduled on your calendar (right?) Awayfind will notice that and his email will be alerted to you with a high priority message on your phone. Use Away find as your primary inbox so that you can work without the constant interruptions of emails, be alerted when important content comes in as defined by your rules/filters and never miss an important email again.  Cannot stress enough the productive increase I and many others have had from using this tool. [AwayFind]

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See how Derby university uses a Youtube video to promote a university course – tie this in with a Google Local placement and you have great local search content on Google

Back in 2006 Youtube purchased for $1.6B by Google which spurred an already increasing growth in online video by subsidizing the cost of the bandwidth and allowed millions around the world to upload videos from all types of devices from web cameras, flip cams, iphones and many more to get there 15 seconds of low quality compressed flash only fame.

As time has progressed, video quality has increased, bandwidth levels around the world have grown to a point where the vast majority of consumers in countries around the world have not only a fixed high speed internet connection but wireless also in many cases. Together with increasing changes in technology and standards the web and so Youtube have changed the way in which we consume media especially video online.

Go back to the times of broadcast.com where all around the net you could find postage sized stamp videos and sit waiting for Real Player to buffer those few seconds over your dial up internet – now videos on Youtube up to 1020p high definition, among other providers are being crawled and ranked by Google and other search engines. The new SEO game is on with a battle between video and localized results – is it possible to create video online, have it rank well for localized results and is it worth it?

Online video like any form of advertising or marketing should be focused and dependant on your type of video. The questions that should be approached primarily with video is where and how?

“Do i need to spend $$$$ getting video produced to put online?” NO
“Should I put video on my own website?” YES and make it shareable, likeable, clickable and embedable
“I really don’t want to spend money with a marketing company to do this for me, I can’t afford it” You don’t need to, with even a simple web camera, 20 minutes of your time and an idea of what you want to do this can all be done for free.

Video works for business plain and simple. Here are some tips on how this can be done better, with results.

1. Don’t rely on one video to create your success – one 30 second pitch video about your product and service is not enough to gain the credibility you want.

2. Be ubiquitos – Youtube is a great place to host your video, its quick to load, free to use, simple to upload and ensure your video is available on multiple platforms – there is nothing worse than creating a video then when your potential customers want to see your video and they are using a mobile device or tablet computer can’t view your video because they are missing a plugin or flash!

3. Name and explain your video – When you upload a video don’t leave the default title and description that your camera gave it – friday_video_2.mp4 instead give it a keyword rich title and description as remember these are going to be indexed by search engines. So perhaps “John the plumber (Bristol) – Explaining Blockages” may be a better approach.

4. Do not rely on “natural SEO” to gain traction to your video – email the link to your friends, clients, post it on twitter and facebook, even linkedin if that is where your business needs to be. Not spamming the networks but putting the link out there and again ensuring that you have your keywords and relative information included.

5. Do not think on the basis of purely ROI instead ensure you have plenty of metrics to measure how the video is performing, have google analytics setup to track and funnel the activities. Are you getting useful comments, click throughs and those clicks being actioned into a sale, contact form submission or what ever may be your end goal. Traffic levels alone are NOT an indication if success.

6. Syndicate – So you have your video on Youtube, you have used the embed code on your own website which is great. Use a tool such as Tube Mogul and have that same video sent to all the major video networks at once – spread your message and have a much better chance of getting your message heard.

7. Make it short, do not ramble on about your product, even an avid fan of your product does not necesarily want to sit through a 15 minute video about your product/service. Keep it around a minute or 30 seconds even better to keep your viewers attention.

8. So users have watched your video, now what? Thats it? Have a call to action at the end of the video, allow users to follow the conversation and continue the online relationship. “Hey what did you think about X – lets us know on our Facebook wall”.

9. Network with other video users, this does NOT mean jump onto any old video and spam the comments with “visit my video” or “click like on my video I want more views” that is not how you approach customers normally is it? Find people who are similar to you or with similar interests and join in the conversation.

10. Video should not be the be all and end all of your online campaign, do not rely on this to bring in your business, continue to work on other aspects of your online campaigns. But if you get responses, comments, feedback on your videos – remember to address them, a follow up video to respond to your comments is something that is always appreciated and can bring a further connection with your viewers.

There is a lot you can do and learn from using online video for your business. If you already use video online for your business, I would love to hear your thoughts, comments and tips n tricks.

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1. Top 5 tips for new businesses

The hour long audio conversation can be found here, the customers speak about Xero here and then the accountants take a turn to discuss how they are using Xero with their clients.

Be sure to subscribe to Dennis Howletts blog for some great posts on Saas/Cloud and all things accounting with technology.

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1. Top 5 tips for new businesses

I joined several different networking group to do the traditional business networking lark and found some worked for me whilst others didn’t that is not to say that one group is better or inferior to the other. This is something everyone has to test for themselves and depending on your business will really decide on which marketing route you take – perhaps its a certain networking group, telephone marketing, email or direct mail.

After trying the different marketing approaches and groups of networking busy bodies (albeit meeting some great people along the way) I have come to the conclusion of the following 5 tips for new businesses.

1. You do not need to offer the best/cheapest/quickest solution to your clients – but you DO need to ensure you offer something of quality that the consumer WANTS otherwise what is the point? There are an endless amount of businesses out there offering service/products that people simply do not want. No likey – No lighty.
2. Know when to hand over control/access to someone else if you are not capable of doing the job. Running your own business is very much like having your own child – you may not want to hand over any control or aspect of your company to someone else but if you are useless at accounting – get a book keeper, if you cannot do sales – hire a sales person. Don’t strugle along if you are simply not good at it – you will cause more problems in the long run.
3. Have patience – the phones will NOT start ringing off the hook on day one of business and you will not be living the lush lifestyle just because “I run a company” that said connect online via social media site such as facebook, linkedin, twitter etc etc… Creating conversations online with social media may help get not only find new customers but suppliers, help and a lot more.
4. Get a great accountant and/or book keeper – simple as that – make sure your books are in order and use an online accounting package such as Xero.com or Kashflow.com which are both online accounting packages that allow you to keep on top of your invoicing, banking and cash flow which will allow you to save time and money on more expensive and difficult to use systems such as Sage or Quickbooks.
5. Learn to say NO – often people believe that more work and so more money is great for the business – well at some point you have to learn to say NO.   Saying yes to every piece of work that comes your way can lead to a variety of problems including:
   • overloading yourself with work that you cannot complete on time/budget
   • end up working away with a client who proves to be very demanding of your time and pays too little
   • you will end up becoming stressed, sleepless and your quality of work will degrade

Prize for the best business tip comment/suggestion

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