Time for inner change?
This blog post is sponsored
On this blog you know I am writing much about motivation, and today I have been asked to review a product called subliminal CDs, which is subliminal recordings covering everything from loosing weigth to boosting your confidence.
If you feel it is time for change, you should start with your inside. By changing the way you think you are opening doors to so many other changes in your life.
I think this is a great product and they really cover a lot of areas, even for us entrepreneurs with their “Business Success” division.
One great thing is what you can buy your recording either as a CD or a MP3, if you choose MP3 you get a better price and more flexibility since you can listen to it both on your computer and on your MP3 player, so that is my recommendation.
I would really recommend a visit to their site and check out some of their CDs and find something for your needs, they sure have it.
Fellow Entrepreneurs Wrote (7)
Nate is discussing if disclosing you earnings is unprofessional. I do not think it is unprofessional but if you are consistently posting your daily average it looks like silly show off and braging to me. I have disclosed what I earn once, and is for this blog and because a bunch of you asked me to do it. I will continue to do that once a month. What I mean is when you have a banner on your blog showing your stats staticly, that is what I can not understand. What does it give you as a blogger?
Don’t give up is what Jacob is telling us today. I have talked about this a lot before, and I would say NEVER give up.
Ever thought about setting up a niche site, Jane May has a step by step guide on how to profit from a niche site
Handling Criticism
If you are innovative in any area and do stand out from the crowd you are most likely to recieve quite much criticism, both constructive and unjustified. Even if you are not the most innovative business owner out there I am sure you have been criticized many times. But were you able to respond to the criticism? Did you take the criticism and turned it in to something good? Below is a few pointers how to handle criticism in your business.
Do not feel discouraged
You have to keep an positive attitude and do something good with the criticism you get. All the criticism you get will not be justified, and when it is not you got to be able to speak up for yourself against the person criticizing you.
If your critic is hostile, it is often from being jealous and what the person criticizing you knows is that it will hurt you, make you sad or maybe even angry. As an entrepreneur you got to work on your self-esteem and keep your head high all the time and really believe in yourself. The best way to handle destructive feedback would probably be to just ignore it. Whatever you do, do not sink to their level, if you are to respond to their criticism, do it in a way that will help you instead of making it worse. You do not always have to defend yourself.
Listen and then act
If it is constructive feedback you get you should really listen to what the person has to say and take that in to consideration, but do not just listen to one persons opinion, whether you feel the feedback is good or bad you should always look for more sources for feedback and if the majority says the same, it is time to act.
Do not forget to express gratitude to your critic when the criticism is justified.
If you feel that the criticism you just got was justified but in no way constructive, take that negative feedback and turn it in to something positive. Ask the critic to explain, and give you full feedback so that you can improve.
You can really benefit from criticism, and the ability to handle criticism is a vital key to success.
Laptop Rentals
This blog post is sponsored
Do you have an upcoming meeting, presentation or maybe a bigger event and feel that your apperance would be much better and more professional if you had modern and more advanced technology solutions at your hands? Then Innovative Rentals is someting you would be able to benefit big from.
Having the latest technology inhouse can be a very expensive story, and it does not fit every company, especially not small startups, but the need is still there and here is where this compnay can hel you out. They offer short term rentals of technology equipment with everything from laptop rentals, MacBook Pro rentals and Tablet PC rentals. You can rent the products from a few days to a couple of months, the choice is yours and this is a big advantage.
This can help you make a succesfull apperance on any event or meeting without going home with an empty wallet. So check their site out, they offer their service nationwide in the US.
You are not alone
There are a lot of entrepreneurs like you and me out there, that are doing the exact same thing. If this is a big chock for you, you might want to make a market research and then just face the fact that you are not alone.
You compete with your business alongside hundreds or maybe thousands of other entrepreneurs offering exactly the same product or service as you or something similar. So what you got to think about is how can you stand out from the crowd? How can you be different and be seen surrounded by all your competitors? Why should a customer use you instead of your competitors?
The uniqueness of your company is one of the most important aspects of it all, and this is an issue every business should address. Even if it is hard to be 100% unique, every step to uniquness is a step in the right direction.
How do I proceed to make my company unique and more attractive to my customers? This might sound simple, and it also is, specialize in some area of your business or nisch. Make your product or service better in ways that your competitors are not, it can be the products or the price, the support and service or even narrowing down your target group compared to what the rest of the industry is targeting.
By specializing in some way you are saying to your potential customers “Look at me”, and that makes other take note of your company and you are also much more likely to get interest in media, which will help your business a lot and probably send a bunch of customers your way.
With this article I do not say that you can not succeed with a business that has a lot of competitors but one thing is for sure, if you want the odds of succeeding to be higher, be unique.
Stress Management for Entrepreneurs
As a hard working entrepreneur on your journey to freedom you are probably feeling stressed from time to time. Deadlines to be met, computers and servers that does not work and just the feeling that you do not have time for all your projects.
If this is something that describes your situation, do not worry, Andreas is here to help you. Just read though the steps below and take the time to really adapt them and I am sure you will feel better.
Plan and prioritize your time
This is a big part of most peoples stress problems. They have not scheduled their work. With no plans, goals and priorities your work will never be fully organized and most things you start will not be finished before you start with a new task and this makes you get stressed out about not finishing. Make a priority list, and schedule your work day and you will see that you will feel much much better.
Take a deep breath
Step outside for a while, stand still and take couple of deep breaths. This adds oxygen to your system and will probably help you get more relaxed instantly.
I have written about this before, you got to allow yourself to take a break from your work and really relax from time to time. Step away from your computer, and go for a walk, stretch your body and just do something else for a while. When you are ready to go back, close your eyes, take a deep breath and count to ten, then sit down and start working again.
Talk about it
Do not hold it in. If you are feeling stressed talk with a close friend, family member or colleague about it. You should also not be afraid to ask for help when you need help, none of us are super heroes that can handle every situation without any problems. Even if it is just about getting help with an assignment at the office from a fellow entrepreneur or if you need advice and help by a professional with your stress related problems, it is never wrong to ask for help.
Dare to say NO
I mentioned this in another article I recently posted called, Easy steps to a calmer life but it is absolutely worth mentioning again. Get to know your limitations. How much can you take? Think about that for a second and do not forget to say the easy word NO when you feel you had enough. If you are already stressed up, the last thing you need is more to do.
Project Updates May 2007
There has been a while since I wrote about how my projects are going. This is mostly because nothing much has happened with my current projects.
As I told you in a previous post, I am a blogger and I love to write and it would be awesome to do more of that, and I have started some other blogs but none of those are really worth mentioning yet since I have not really got them started, except from my personal blog Andreas Bard’s Adventures. My plan is to make a full time income from my blogs and I do no think that is impossible, my goal is to be able to do that within 4 months from now.
I have also mentioned that I will be trying to sell of most of my other smaller projects, but I have had no luck with that yet, but I have to try a little harder. When I do that I will be able to focus on my blogs and one big project I have started a couple of weeks ago, more about that further down. Some of the sites I am selling includes:
YourSpace Arcade - An arcade community
GYgames - An arcade community
Blandade Klipp - A Swedish video community
Get A Community - Community Building Resource with paid posting service and more.
Except from this I also have a bunch of domains for sale listed on this blog here. If you find anything you are interested in, please contact me on MSN or mail: info@andreasbard.com
The BIG project
So I can not tell you too much about this but I can mention that we are creating a service that will cover most areas for bloggers. Everything from platforms to making money. This is my biggest venture so far and I have partnered up with great people for this one. I am 100% sure it will be a hit.
The rest of it
For my arcade and video communtities the traffic is increasing quite nicely for every month that passes but the income is ver low, just a couple of dollars per week from Adsense and affiliate offers. I am sure they can do better, but I do not have the time to monetize them in a better way.
GetACommunity.com has not performed well at all during April, but so far this month it has generated 2 bigger orders. I have never really advertised this project and I do not intend to, I will let it grow and let happy customers refer new customers and hope it will bring in a couple of extra $100 per month.
I will publish some interesting articles te coming days that I hop you like, but this is all for now.
Secure your data files
This blog post is sponsored
Have you looked for a way to secure your data files and being able to restrict the way the persons you send the files to uses it? Then Pinion is something for you.
If you are thinking of selling or letting go of your old computer, Pinion Sanitizer software is a must. This software helps you clean out and Eraze Hard Drive on your computer, leaving no traces of what has been there before. Leaving your computer without having it cleaned up is risky if you want to keep your companies and your personal secrets for yourself. Pinion Sanitizer is an easy to use software, that is cost effective, especially if you compare it to the risk of exposing your most sensitivt information.
Next Internet Millionare
Today I was reading some of my usual blogs and I stumbled upon a very interesting new concept. It is Joel Comm that is the father of this project that is called, Next Internet Millionare.
Next Internet Millionare is a reality show where Joel Comm together with 12 other teachers will work with 12 contestants for 2 weeks, to see which one of them who is walking home with the cash prize of $25 000 and the chance to hook up in a joint venture with Joel Comm for his next big project.
Are you the next internet millionare? If, you feel you are you can audition for the show. I would love to try but I do no honestly think I have a chance and I actually do not have time for that either now that my schedule is filled with work with my newest project.
I will do a project update tonight or latest by tomorrow for you guys.
Fellow Entrepreneurs Wrote (6)
Adnan over at Blogtrepreneur deliveres an excellent top 5 list, Top 5 Forms of Website and Blog Monetization for 2008.
On Nate Whitehill’s blog you can read about 7 Ways To Get Readers to Stick.
Does Your Personality Fit The Business? That is a question that gets discussed by Shane on Zoomstart.com.
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About Andreas Bard
My name is Andreas Bard and I am a web entrepreneur, writer and blogger. On this blog I write motivational articles and aim to help you on your way to success with your business venture.
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