by Charles Grimm on December 8, 2010
If sales was your occupation then the Dip might not be considered a good thing. You may associate the dip with the valley of no sales. However, I liked Seth Godin’s book The Dip because it is an easy read.. a couple hours at the most, and it essentially suggests that we ask ourselves the question..Are we in the right Dip?
What he contends is that you evaluate your passions and strengths before you get into the dip – to make sure you have enough juice in you, to power through the dip when it inevitably arrives. Because we all hit the dip, the difference between success and mediocrity, according to Seth is, that we have enough energy at that time to go forward with our career path, new project, or business start up etc. to power through that valley when it arrives.
Accordingly it always arrives. The start up is always fun but success is getting beyond this gap.
This reminds me of another book..The Right Mountain, which parallels a former Ad Exec’s journey to and up Everest. ( I have signed copy. Who ha!) again contending a similar point with more critical emphasis. Climbing Everest might be an inspiring goal but it may not be the correct choice for many people because it may just consume every once of energy you have…and that might not be a good thing.
In this day of online marketing and multiple new business model choices, it is even more important to evaluate your passions and strengths before you choose your path.
Yet if you choose your path and realize it isn’t the correct one, ( try to do this sooner) then be willing to quit until you have it right. If you develop the right strategy then the stuff along the way..the tasks, projects, products and ideas etc will need to be changed in order to get to a successful outcome. David Allen, the corporate coach and productivity guru has a similar thought about being willing to renegotiate your agreements with yourself in order to clear your mind for greater and continuous energy. Simply, we have to better manage the flows and amount of the information we have and process it more easily in order to work and live a fulfilling and balanced life.
The take away on this might be, focus your energy on following a good strategy for life, business, projects and so on and be willing to change along the way until you start to have it right. Then you will ultimately have the energy and passion to carry through the tough spots or dips to the outcomes you want.
How about you, what’s your take on the Dip?
by Charles Grimm on November 26, 2010
Little Joe is demonstrating his new ninja karate moves after we stuffed ourselves with the big bird. Maria and I watching the action.
by Charles Grimm on October 15, 2010
This is a tutorial on setting up Joomla through Cpanel.
If you are a purist you will be able to find many that say you have to go through the experience of installing joomla manually. I will agree that there is benefit to understanding the process of joomla installation. Yet if you are building a business website and need to get going you will already have to spend a lot of time thinking and creating good content. After all that’s why they call it a content management system. The idea behind a CMS system, like joomla, is that you don’t have too focus on being a web developer to use it, unless of course you want to.
To start
The easiest way to get going with joomla is to work with a great web host provider. I recommend Liquid Web because they have 24 hour phone support. If you tell them you want to set up joomla they will know the correct configuration for your needs. There are many others that host joomla and it usually comes down to the type of support you want. DIY- forum or phone support are the 2 main options. Do your self a favor, pay a bit more and get phone support. It will save you a ton of time in those emergency situations.
What you will need
This description assumes that you will be installing joomla 1.5 or soon out (officially, joomla 1.6).
First you will want hosting that has cpanel in your account. This will not only allow you to set up joomla in minutes but it will also be invaluable in the future if you want to do perform other functions, like setting up your own company email accounts and forwarders etc.
The easy way to intall joomla 1.5 and 1.6
Server & account requirements
You don’t have to understand php, msql or apache only that they are installed on your server. Again if you say you are installing a joomla cms, a reputable Host will know the requirements and will have the latest versions of all this software installed. For your reference:
Cpanel – www.cpanel.net
PHP 5.0 or higher – www.php.net
MySQL 4.0 or higher www.mysql.com
Apache 1.13.19 or above – www.apache.org
Finally
Once you are setup with user name and password for Cpanel; login and look in your admin panel for a button or icon called Fantastico. This is a software that automatically installs many different types of software. Click on fantastico. Look on the right hand side for the joomla version you want to intall. Once you click on the that version simply follow the instructions. It’s really that simple.
While their are many other aspect to joomla from setting permissions, to security and so on, this basic instruction will get you up and started with joomla where you can actually start working inside the joomla admin and adding content, different templates and much more. If you have any questions on joomla installation or “business friendly” hosting companies leave a comment or you can go to eMediaWright for more resources. If you want the manual joomla install version you can visit the joomla offical website. This video link, http://help.joomla.org/ghop/feb2008/task167/joomlainstall.html will make it easy. Or just send me a tweet and I forward you the steps.
by Charles Grimm on September 17, 2010
Google Webmaster Tools and Joomla
Google gives you 4 options for site ownership verification when adding a new URL to your webmaster tools account.
1.Add a DNS record to your domain’s configuration
2.Add a meta tag to your site’s home page
3.Upload an HTML file to your server
4.Link to your Google Analytics account
When doing this for a joomla site I have found it easiest to use either #2. meta tag or #3. html verification.
Meta Tag verification:
Log in to joomla administration and go to extensions > template manager. Click the template you are currently using. Your template edit screen will come up. Click the EDIT HTML icon on the right of your screen.
A window will open allowing you to edit the HTML code of your template.
Simply add the code just above the </head> tag.
The code will look something like this:
<meta name=”google-site-verification” content=”gzqCKvvm0NgJaAPYg_jkPz2MzMmPBmJUzk3BPPovcZQ” />
SAVE. Then go back to Webmaster tools and click verify. Your done!
Note: You do not have to be that familiar with PHP/HTML to do this but I would always backup my file just in case.
Joomla Akeeba Backup is a simple and easy component to install and use.
The second method:
Uploading an HTML file to your server.
Note: this example is for Joomla 1.5 and for those using SEF URL’s with “add suffix to URL’s’ as YES. This is found in your Joomla Global configuration panel…under SEO Settings.
Again, inside your Joomla admin panel go to content>article manager> new.
Copy the HTML code in the title and into the body.
The code should look something like this; google97a0e98859299a13.html
(You have to add something to the body in Joomla 1.5 or you won’t be able to save the file.) Under the section and category area click “uncategorized”
SAVE.
Then go to your menu manager and add this article page as a menu item. You can add this to your main menu if you wish because you are only going to keep this live for a few seconds until you check that the link works and appears in your address bar. Then clicking verify in webmaster tools.
That’s it! If you have any questions or comments or other suggestions please let me know. Or send me a tweet.
by Charles Grimm on September 10, 2010
It’s been a while since I have updated our directories list and since search marketing is continually changing I thought it would be good to revisit the core local directory sites that stand out today. Below is a data source for the major search portals.
One of the best things I can suggest if you are going to start adding your information to local link directories is to write out, ahead of time, some basic information about your company history, and your bio. Doing this before hand will let you think through a sharp and to the point description of who you are and what you do. This in the end will save you tons of time in process ( if you are doing this yourself) and make sure you give people the right message. After all if you intend for people to take action after searching and finding your listing, then you need to give this process due diligence. If don’t you might as well not waste your time doing the listing at all.
In 11 plus years involved with search marketing (before it was even called search marketing) I have seen many internet marketing tactics, both white and black hat. People, in my opinion and experience don’t take action on the web if there isn’t at least a reasonable amount of transparency and authenticity. It doesn’t mean that there still won’t be a lot of knuckleheads out there trying to beat the system. So if you’re going to spend any time doing link building put in an effort when you add your content. Also, try to be as consistent as possible. Enough of said. Here is a short list of core directories to get you started:
Top of the List: GetListed.org -allows you to see how your business is indexed in five of the most popular Local search engines—Google, Yelp, Bing, Yahoo, and Best of the Web
UniversalBusinessListing.org provides a single entry point where you can create an enhanced business profile that is distributed to all major U.S. search engines, online yellow pages, 411 Directory Assistance, mapping and GPS navigation sites.
Add a Universal Business Listing
Localeze distributes your business content to the largest network of local search engine partners in the industry.
Add Your Business to Localeze
infoUSA is a major business directory whose data is used as a starting point by many local search engines.
Add your information with infoUSA
RateItAll is large consumer review portal where visitors can rate and review local businesses and products. The site reaches more than 1 million consumers per month and offers a free submission tool for local businesses to get listed.
Add Your Business to RateItAll
Superpages.com is a top online resource for finding information and insights on businesses and retailers.
Add your Business listing to Superpages
Yelp is a very popular Local information portal on the U.S. West Coast, and in certain industries across the rest of the country.
Add your profile on Yelp
Insiderpages is a Local search site that is regularly crawled by Google.
Add your listing to Insiderpages
CitySearch focuses on local services like hotels, restaurants, bars, movies, events and retail shopping.
Add your listing to CitySearch
Brownbook.net is a free local business directory that anyone can edit.
Add your listing to BrownBook
Do you have more core local directories to add? Let us know.
