Guest Post: by TJ Philpott

People are always looking for ways on how to motivate themselves and to maintain this drive when they have goals to achieve. From the standpoint of many online entrepreneurs this is a particularly critical issue. Marketing on the internet involves often times working alone and wrestling with the challenges of a competitive industry. Bloggers are a perfect example of someone who needs daily inspiration. They are expected to maintain a constant flow of original and quality content for their readers while also juggling several other responsibilities. The stakes get even higher here if they blog to make money since their income is now also on the line.

The point here is whether you blog to make money or have other goals to achieve we all have the need to generate that inner drive that will help push us to the next level. Once that drive has been found the next step is to find and maintain the inspirational thoughts to keep it alive.

Here is a 5 step process anybody can use to find and maintain the necessary motivation to continue to move forward.

Determine Your Goal(s)

It all begins with you deciding what exactly is it you want to achieve. It is impossible to keep yourself motivated if you do not have a clear picture of what it is you are striving for. By clearly determining your goal or goals and insuring that they are realistic you can then move on to the next step. The key is to keep things REAL.

Formulate Definitive Plans

It matters little whether you are marketing on the internet or you perhaps have set other goals to achieve you will need a plan to get what it is you want. What steps or sacrifices will you need to take or make to accomplish your objectives? This plan or roadmap is what will keep you directed and on course; without it you will just be going around in circles.

Develop a ‘Can Do’ Attitude

After you have determined that your goals are realistic you want to focus on the benefits you will enjoy once you have reached your objectives. This of course is the ‘why’ behind your efforts and will be instrumental in helping you maintain the drive to reach these benefits.

Here is where you now ‘etch’ these thoughts into your mind thereby allowing them to supply you with the daily inspiration you will need to succeed.

An Inch at a Time

If necessary start with smaller tasks to make accomplishments easier and to build up your momentum. The more you accomplish the greater your motivation will be thereby making more difficult task seem easier. Easier is good, right?

Avoid Negativity

No matter what you undertake in life there will always be the naysayers. You know the ones. The people that tell you it can’t be done or you are in over your head. Generally these are people who are afraid to take on challenges themselves.

People like this normally validate their own shortcomings by sabotaging the efforts of those who demonstrate more ambition then them.

Avoid these sources of negativity since they will only sap your positive energy and valuable time if you let them.

As you can see learning how to motivate yourself starts with a certain mindset. This mindset can only come from within but once you have established it you can tap into it for daily inspiration. As in the case of most online entrepreneurs the need for inspirational thoughts is a necessity due to the isolated nature of their chosen occupation. But in the end it matters not who you are since the 5 steps we discussed above will work for anyone with ambitions.

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TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. Learn more about How to Motivate Yourself and Stay that Way and also get a free guide that teaches valuable niche research techniques by visiting: http://blogbrawn.com/

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• Advertising, Opt-in Leads, Email Marketing service helps small businesses market their products more effectively. We provide everything you need, http://www.madviral.com Phone: 256-778-8350 (9am-5pm CST M-F) MadViral Enterprises, LLC 171 Early Rd. Hartselle, Al. 35640

Guest Post: by Erin Ferree

When you create a website, you’re trying to make several different audiences happy. You’ve got searchers coming in from the search engines, you want those search engines to rank you well, and you’ve got past and prospective clients. Referral partners are also out there looking at your site and sending business your way. Each different audience for your website has its own requirements, different things it’s looking for, and unique needs.

You have to think about each audience you’re trying to appeal to as you design and develop the different parts of your site. That includes navigation style, types of pages, text on those pages, design, coding, offers, and calls to action. You have to make sure that each of these elements balances all the others so that there aren’t too many pages with not enough content, or that navigation is so complex that it’s hard for people to find what they’re looking for.

It’s easy to focus on one audience’s needs over another.

Getting stuck thinking about one element of your site can result in an unbalanced site. And as you try to make your website do more, as you add complexity, it’s harder and harder to keep the functions at equilibrium. The more elements your site contains and the more audiences you think about, the more difficult it becomes to keep everyone happy.

Focus on balancing everyone’s needs and concerns.

If you focus on one of your audiences over the others, you’ll wind up with a website that seems out of balance and doesn’t meet some of your audiences’ needs. For example, you can focus too heavily on writing your site content to appeal to the search engines and create a site that’s so keyword-laden you look a bit crazy.

Instead, try to keep all of your audiences’ needs in harmony so that everyone has a good experience and is impressed by your site instead of wondering what’s wrong with it.

When you write, design, and code your site, think about:

1. Who is visiting it? Where are your clients coming from? Search engines bring searchers to your site. Past clients look you up for new projects or needs. There are potential customers who have been referred to you. And those who have met you at networking events or seen your booth at a trade show. Each of these audiences has different levels of knowledge about you and different issues that they want to address.

2. What do they want to know? Each audience has different needs, problems, and concerns. The search engines want to know what your site’s all about, and they want to see your keywords. Past clients want contact information and to see if you can help them with their new need. Potential clients want to know if you can solve their problem, and they want to know if you’re trustworthy and likeable. People who have already met you want to get more information on your services and find out what’s next in the process of working with you. Think about why people are coming to your site and how you can help them along.

3. What you want your website to do for your business? Your website should be more than just pretty. It should do a job (or several jobs) for your business. Think about how it can most benefit your business whether by bringing in new clients, getting noticed by the search engines, sharing your thoughts with the world through articles, helping you get the media’s attention, or maybe some other function entirely. Whatever job your website must do, make sure that everything you put on it works towards making that happen.

4. Are you being accidentally contrary? Do any of the things you’ve put on your site for one audience contradict what you’ve written for another? You want to make sure that your site always makes sense, no matter who’s reading it or how much of the site they read. You also want your site to mesh with your printed marketing pieces, phone conversations, and the delivery of your products or services to ensure that your customers stay happy.

If you think about these 4 things as you’re developing your website, you’ll create one that keeps all of your audiences happy. The site will keep you happy in the long run, and you’ll get more return on your investment in it as well.

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Erin Ferree, founder of elf design, helps small businesses stand out from their competition so that they can connect with their best customers. She does this by working with business owners to define their brands, and then using that definition to create logos, marketing materials and websites that show how they shine.

She also believes that all of a business’s brand materials should be not just pretty, but also designed effectively and strategically. This produces a winning combination of materials that communicate visually, look stunning and are designed effectively, which help her clients reach their target audiences.

She writes about design, branding and marketing through her eBooks, her blog at http://www.not-just-pretty.com, and in free articles in her newsletter, Stand Out, which you can subscribe to at http://www.elf-design.com/newsletter.html

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• Advertising, Opt-in Leads, Email Marketing service helps small businesses market their products more effectively. We provide everything you need, http://www.madviral.com Phone: 256-778-8350 (9am-5pm CST M-F) MadViral Enterprises, LLC 171 Early Rd. Hartselle, Al. 35640