Great Article on Blogging

Found on del.icio.us, an fantastic article on Blogging from ProBlogger: 18 Lessons I’ve Learnt about Blogging. I have a lot to learn from it and will try to use it on the site I’m about to launch. Here’s a breakdown of the rules, although I’d really recommend reading the article‘s in-depth explanations.

  1. Be Lucky – “The key I’ve found with luck is to run with it and to make every lucky instance last as long as possible. So when you strike it lucky enjoy it but also ask yourself ‘how can I capitalise on my good fortune?’”
  2. Work Hard – “Work alone is definitely NOT everything (I’ve seen many hard working bloggers who have not had success) but it is one element that I think is essential.”
  3. Use the Power of Exponential Growth
  4. Differentiate Yourself
  5. Provide Value
  6. Target a Niche (Keep a blog focused and don’t spread yourself too thin (8) content-wise)
  7. Diversify (At least try a few things before throwing all your energy toward a single one.)
  8. Don’t Spread Self too Thin — Absolutely! It’s better to do one thing really really well than a whole bunch of things at a mediocre level
  9. Have a Backup Plan (Don’t depend on blogging alone)
  10. Be Light on Your Feet (Opportunities come and go)
  11. Relationships are Key — Yes!
  12. Establish Boundaries
  13. Don’t read your Own Press
  14. Beware of Hype
  15. Get a Life (Enjoy what you do, but enjoy the rest of life too)
  16. Make Mistakes — Very important one! I couldn’t agree more
  17. Be Yourself
  18. There are No Rules

I feel many of these rules apply not only to blogs but to all business, and all of life in general. These rules could apply to relationships very easily as well. Target a niche? Yes, find something that special someone really likes.

If you just look at the rules, perhaps they can be simplified to:

  • take advantage of opportunities
  • get focused
  • help others
  • stay true

But these eighteen rules are perfect in the way they’re specific enough to directly apply and yet general enough to apply to all sorts of situations.

Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow RichThink and Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill is an amazing plan-making, goal-setting, entrepreneurial book. It comes from one of Dale Carnegies’s (How to Win Friends & Influence People) industrious students. The book really focuses on how to create plans, see visions, and realize them. At times it gets a bit long, perhaps the author didn’t know that most people don’t remember lists of more than seven things, but the content is fantastic. I had my first business idea after reading the book and following its steps and because of this I learned about patents, product evaluation, goal setting and following through on plans.

I got the recommendation for this book from Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad“. After reading that book, I realized that my web development job was going nowhere and just wasting my time. I was eager to start a new business. The plan was to teach SAT’s, however that wasn’t exactly a business rather a self-employment thing. Still not sure about what to do and excited to learn more I followed up with this book. The first thing it said was to set a goal, visualize it, and make a plan for it. My short term goal was to make twenty thousand in assets by the end of February. Since I was planning on studying for the GMAT and teaching SAT’s (the two help each other out quite nicely), why not make a new innovative product. The idea finally came, a special card game for memorizing new facts and words. I wrote down the plan to accomplishing it, and read the commitment to it and the steps every morning and evening.

Among the first steps was to read a book on patents. I accomplished this in the first week, even with work destroying my energy. By the following week I started a website and started thinking about the design. Eventually I did an analysis and realized that manufacturing and distribution of the game would force a fairly high price on everything and perhaps it would be better to get the whole thing going online. After about a week of planning and brainstorming, everything seemed clear. I told my roomate and we sat down to see the closest competition. Then came the big lesson. Someone had already created such a website a few years back. It actually had all the ideas we had and worked really well. It also charged about twice as much. At that point I joined a small start-up and had no time to work on any other projects until I quit my day job. On one hand it was a bit disappointing not being first, on the other hand it was an important lesson about doing one’s research. The lessons learned through this experience and inspired by the “Think and Grow Rich” book were priceless. The book gets kind of strange at times, but nonetheless if one follows its steps, he or she will surely gain a wealth of knowledge.

The Automatic Millionaire

The Automatic Millionaire : A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish RichDavid Bach’s very insightful book. I got the audio version at the library. The Automatic Millionaire introduces the idea of paying yourself first and doing so automatically. It’s absolutely right about several things: to keep something going it must be automatic, it’s absolutely worth paying yourself first (before taxes), and people would be amazed by their latte factor. I actually find that I waste most of my money on fringe buys, but nonetheless, every part of this book, especially about interest is well worth considering. Don’t let money waste away in a bank account. I don’t know if the investment vehicles are the most powerful, this book isn’t like Rich Dad, Poor Dad in its pace, but it makes a powerful point about investing and retiring and offers very very many useful ideas about money.