Jamie Harrop | Young Entrepreneur

How Long Have You Been Blogging? - Poll!

Jamie Harrop — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:00:30 +0000

I’m often fascinated by the amount of growth that blogging is seeing, and I’m even more fascinated when I think of the amount of people I’ve met during my years in the blogosphere.

Maybe it’s just me, but every six months or so I seem to find new waves of blogging friends. Back when I first started taking blogging seriously, I was a part of a bunch of close blogging friends who would often link to each others posts and chat on social networks. I’ve mentioned them before, but I’ll do so again because that first group was close to my heart. Jane May. Jeff Kee and Steven Welton, just to name a few. Then that group broke up. Some people sold their blogs. Others had a change in niche. And others quit blogging for no other reason than “they weren’t succeeding”.

But then a new group came along. And once again, that group fell apart as some bloggers grew in to other groups, quit or changed direction.

Today, the group of bloggers I tend to mix with are the likes of Sid Savara, Rowell Dionicio, Davina Haisell, Barbara Swafford, Hunter Nuttall and Cath Lawson. There are many other bloggers who I interact with daily and whose blogs I comment on, and indeed who comment on my blog, but those six bloggers and me all tend to comment on each others blogs. As much as I hate to imagine it, I’m sure this group will eventually go their own ways. (Sorry to the guys I just mentioned up there, I don’t want to imagine a blogosphere without you but past experience has shown me one of you will quit, two of you will become so successful you sell up and live on an island, and well… you get the idea).

So as I stop to consider all that blogging has brought me, I ask a simple question: How long have you been blogging? Please vote in the poll and also let us know your thoughts regarding the friendships you’ve built. Do you have a group you tend to feel closest to? Is there a person you see writing comments on all the blogs you comment on? Let us know in the comments! Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Our Desire Affects Our Ability to Achieve

Jamie Harrop — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:00:35 +0000

Photo by Dru

This is a guest post by my recent Twitter friend and blog subscriber, Mike of Mike’s Life. Mike is a forty-something, married, father of two. He lives in the hot part of central Europe, and has been running a conventional business for the last eight years. He started his blog in December 2008 in the hope of staving off impending bankruptcy during 2009, and to start a new career writing for a living - something he has always enjoyed. For reasons which are apparent on the blog, he cannot reveal his real identity, but has promised to do so before the end of 2009!

Within reason, you can achieve almost anything, as long as you have sufficient desire to do so. We can talk about self motivation techniques; we can receive motivation from other people, but ultimately the overriding factor in whether or not we achieve our objective, boils down to how much we desire it.

The Lightbulb

Let me give you an example: Let’s take a product that’s simple and cheap - the light bulb. Everybody needs them and nobody desires them, so it’s a good one to use. You can sell my light bulbs for the same price as your local supermarket, and for each one you sell I will pay you a commission of ten cents. How many can you sell over the next 4 weeks? A thousand? Five thousand? If you’re an entrepreneur, I bet your mind is already buzzing with ways to maximize your sales! You’re also working out how many you need to sell to make it worth the time you’re going to have to invest in doing so. Even if you can sell ten thousand bulbs (and that would really be going some) you’re still ‘only’ going to earn a thousand dollars.

Now let me add a new dimension to this - your target for the 4 week period is 25,000 bulbs. But, I’m going to pay you a bonus of 20,000 dollars, on top of your normal commission, if you hit or exceed the objective. Already your mind is going into overdrive - you’re thinking about how many your family will buy, how many your friends will buy, hell, you’re probably thinking of buying a good number yourself! Confident you can do it? I bet you are!

Now the only thing that’s changed is the incentive, and because of that your desire has also changed. Your ability to sell light bulbs has not changed at all in the time it took you to read from one paragraph to the other.

What Does This Mean?

It means that in order to have a realistic chance of achieving your objectives, you need to create the necessary desire in yourself, and only you can judge what will create that desire. For some of you it will be money, for some it will be self respect and for others it will be the respect of your peers.

One of my objectives at the start of 2008 was to replace my car - it was four years old and was overdue to be replaced. But the truth is I’m kind of comfortable with it, it feels like an old friend, and every time I was in a position to do something about replacing it, I found a reason not to. I failed to achieve that objective, but I should have taken it off my list even as I thought about it.

So analyze each of your objectives now, and ask yourself how deep your desire to achieve it is. If the desire, and I mean the real, deep desire isn’t there, then ditch the objective, or seriously revise it.

What is it that motivates you? What is your desire? Is it money? A reputation? A good life for your family? Let Mike and the rest of us know in the comments!

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What I learnt about Blogging in December & January Goals

Jamie Harrop — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:00:28 +0000

Photo by Jamie Harrop

Happy Saturday friends! I hope you’re all doing fantastic, sticking to your goals and resolutions, and recovering well from the holiday season. It is a stressful time, isn’t it? All the buying presents, wrapping presents, cooking, party hosting, beer drinking, wine tasting and game playing. Wow. Sure sounds stressful. Or not. I wonder why we get so stressed at this time of year then?

It’s at this time of year when I just like to stop, look and think. I like to remind myself that we’re stood on something 4.54 billion years old, that is spinning at a rate of 30km per second (that’s 107 thousand kilometres per hour, by the way), orbiting something that is 96 million miles away that provides this thing called light, which, by the way, is over eight minutes old by the time it reaches us and comes from something that is 5,500 degrees C. Pretty unremarkable. Not. But we wake up each day and don’t seem to think anything of it. I often wonder how much we’d take care of it if the universe was in a bottle. Imagine that… It would be like The Simpsons episode where Lisa creates life. Or a crazy Christmas Coke commercial.

Anyway, as we go in to January I gathered it was time to set some new goals and take some time to remind myself of the lessons I’ve learnt in the final month of 2008.

What I Learnt in December

A lot of YouTube Videos Get Removed

My most popular post, thanks to the wonders of Google and some sexy search engine optimisation (I call it Bog Standard Good Web Design), is my 58 Motivational Songs which accounts for around 25% of my daily traffic. One of the things I pride myself on most with these songs is not just having a list, but having YouTube videos of the songs directly on my blog. There’s not a site out there with so many motivational songs in one list that has the videos included. However, this month I’ve found out far more videos get removed from YouTube than I initially thought. In December alone, I’ve had to replace approximately 25 of the 58 videos because they have been taken down for copyright reasons. As I type this, I’m going through the list and replacing the broken videos.

Unfortunately, I’m yet to find a WordPress plugin that can check for broken videos for me. If you’re a plugin developer, add this idea to your list.

If you use video from external sources on your blog, remember to check them each month or at the very least add a link under each video to your contact page so people can easily report broken videos.

The Best Time to Tweet

I tend to Tweet at a variety of times during the day. I’ll usually have a quick flow of Tweets in the morning when I get in the office, a few sparsely thrown in during the work day, and then a bunch at night as I relax.

During the holiday period, I’ve been awake later in to the evening than usual. Each time I’ve sent more than two or three Tweets between 12am-2am GMT (7pm - 9pm EST) I’ve seen a bunch of new followers get added to my ever growing list of friends. During one particular late night Twitter binge last week, 20 new people followed me in just 30 minutes.

If you’re at all concerned with that tiny piece of text that is labelled as “Followers”, Tweet between 12am-2am GMT (7pm - 9pm EST) and your Twitter ego will be rocking.

If you’re not already following me on Twitter, please do so. I like to think I post a lot of useful tidbits that simply can’t be made in to a full blog post.

I Lost Touch With the Community

Yes, that’s right. I’m admitting to not being a good friend and not repaying favours (although doing favours for the sole hope of getting a favour in return is not a good idea!).

I’m talking about blog comments. When I first turned to blogging as a semi-serious outlet for my musings, I would comment on blogs and try to build new relationships like there was no tomorrow. I’d often set my RSS reader to check my feeds every five minutes so I could be the first one to write a comment. But as my blog has grown and my post quality has gone up, I’ve slowly lost touch with the community.

An hour ago, I set myself a goal to write a comment on every blog post I read over the next week. I’m hoping I’ll slowly get back in to the routine of reading and commenting.

Just after setting my goal, a new post from ProBlogger popped in to my reader. So off I went to comment. Within five minutes of doing so, I had two new visitors come through to my blog and read my content and about page. Writing comments pays both in relationship building and blog promoting. Don’t forgot to do it, and don’t lose touch with the community.

It’s Impossible for me to Write 10 Guest Posts in a Month

Back at the start of December, I set two goals. The first was to reach 200 subscribers, which I did by reaching a high of 226. The second was to write 10 guest posts. I failed. I think I wrote four in total. However, it’s a lesson learnt which I’ll take with me in to January and beyond.

Posts About My Decking are Useless and Crap

Hey, if in the New Year you can’t have a dig at yourself, then what’s the point in living? I really should have put more thought in to my last post rather than rushing it before I started my New Year celebrations. Had I done so, it may have got a little more than “Zero Comments”. Live and learn. I shall never write about my decking again.

That’s what I learnt in December. I hope it helps you as much as it helped me. What did you learn, besides the fact that your Mother-In-Law is still a wolf and Turkey still tastes wonderful?

Goals for January

Many of you will have set New Years resolutions. I haven’t, because I don’t see January as being different from any other month. It’s just another month to me. Fortunately, “just another month” doesn’t mean I don’t set goals like it would for most people. It means I continue to set goals, like I do all year around.

Don’t take that the wrong way. Resolutions and goals are great, but New Years resolutions tend to be far too lengthy. “I vow to stop smoking for life”. “I vow to get fit”. There’s a reason 90% of people fail when setting New Years resolutions. Because the time frames are too long. And that’s why I only set myself monthly goals, and why you should too.

If you’ve set yourself a lengthy New Years resolution, break it down in to goals for this month. “I’ll ride a bike twice a week this January”. Then in February, “I’ll ride a bike three times a week”. By breaking those resolutions down in to manageable, measurable, bite-size chunks, you’ll be much more likely to succeed.

Another good idea when setting goals is to tell people and ask them to keep you accountable. To be kept accountable, you need to tell people who aren’t afraid to kick you up the ass or slap you around the head if you lose track. Like me. And that’s why I’m telling you my goals, because I just know many of you would love to slap me around the head. Possibly with a big fish. Or a knuckle-duster. I guess it depends how much I’ve annoyed you in the past.

Goal 1 - Reach 230 Subscribers by the end of January

Despite the high of 226 subscribers midway through December, I’ve been averaging 215 since then. Once again, I’m setting my subscriber goals low. Goals are as much about the excitement of achieving as they are about providing direction. The last thing I want to do is set a goal that is so high I don’t reach it until the last day of the month. I think a lot of the buzz and achievement from last month came about because of the low goals. While they were high enough to result in substantial growth, they were low enough to be achievable, exciting and motivating.

Goal 2 - Write 4 Guest Posts by the end of January

Taking a lesson from last months failure of writing 10 guest posts, I’ve decided to drop the amount down to one guest post per week. I also intend to try writing for a different blog or more than one blog so I can compare results. The results from writing for John Chow were good, but I suspect I can get better results by writing elsewhere.

Goal 3 - For Every Post I read, I shall Comment

This one was difficult to write because it was so hard to make the goal measurable. I was just going to say “I will write more comments on other blogs”, but there’s no measurement to keep me accountable. So I went for “every post”. I may not manage it, but at least I’ll give it a try. I’m looking forward to getting back to grips with the community outside of my own blog.

So there you have it. The results of my goals from December. The lessons I learnt in December. And my goals for January. Here’s to another cracking month!

What new things did you learn in December? What are your goals for January? Did you set any New Years resolutions? Let us know in the comments!

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Standing On My Decking…

Jamie Harrop — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:30:08 +0000

Photo by David Sunderland

Stiff from the days frost, I struggled to slide open the door. But as I did, I felt the cold, frigid air hit me. And then a smell. A smell of a burning stove.

As I looked down the valley from my garden decking, I could see nothing but fog. Visibility down to less than a quarter mile.

The night was still. I could see a Christmas tree in the house over my garden fence, and the faint flashing glow of the lights in the window upstairs.

In the distance, a siren. That’s the only noise that penatrates this foggy, still night.

As I stand on my decking, I suddenly realise Winter isn’t so bad afterall. It’s just different. Much calmer. Much quieter. Much different.

So as we struggle to wake each dark morning, it’s time we take a moment to watch the day. Days are shorter, so you don’t have long to appreciate this calm, relaxation before once more long Summer days are on the horizon.

As you celebrate the incoming year this evening, take the time to stop and experience the moment. You’ll be thankful for doing so, I promise!

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Blogging Questions Answered - Part 1

Jamie Harrop — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:28:29 +0000

Photo by Kagey B

Hey friends! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday, didn’t eat too much, didn’t exercise too little, and didn’t fall in to the trap of waiting until Thursday to set yourself some new goals. Like me. Yes, it’s official. As a Generation-Y work-from-home(r), office lounger and aspiring cook, I ate far too much and exercised far too little. Unless you count Wii Boxing as a workout. (My back is still aching! Wimp!).

So today I’m back in to the swing of things. I’ve finished some Web development work that will pay the bills for all those Christmas presents I didn’t buy people (Bah Humbug!), I cooked some homemade sausage rolls and stuffing balls, and I went for a 37 mile run, a 27 mile bike ride, and a 21 mile swim. Or not. But I did finish my work and cooked some snacks. Honest.

I might go down to the gym on Thursday for the first time in a month. Yep, that’ll be fun. Sweating and spitting away with all those people who made New Years resolutions to get fit. On second thoughts, maybe I’ll wait a few weeks to give those people chance to quit. It’ll happen. It always does. I just hope you aren’t one of them!

Anyway, that’s enough with the verbal-motivational-kick-up-the-ass-lovin’. I want to share something much less painful and much more useful.

7 Questions. 7 Polls. 7 Sets of Results.

Over the last few months I’ve conducted seven blogging related polls. 222 votes have been cast from 155 voters and any number of lessons of have been learnt in the process. Sometimes the results were expected. Other times they were a surprise. But today, I want to bring all the results together in one post so we can all learn from those who took the time to vote and comment.

Without further ado, here is the first poll, conducted way back in October.

Do You Have a Blogging (Business) Plan?

Almost 50% of bloggers have some sort of plan for their blog, but only in their head. It’s not on paper and ready for a regular review.

While I’d rather see bloggers have a plan in their head than no plan at all, it worries me that almost 50% of bloggers have a plan that is subject to chop and change as and how their mind sees fit on any particular day. As your mind forgets parts of your plan, it replaces it with other things. And just how much planning can your head store? My mind probably couldn’t store much more than a single goal (”I want to resign from my day job and work from home”, or “I want X amount of subscribers”). That’s not a plan. That’s just a goal. A plan is how you intend to reach your goal and what you need to do when things go bad, or indeed, what you need to do when the going is good. I’m not sure anybodies mind can securely store this depth of information for the lifetime of a blog.

There was a lot of discussion in the comments from people who have goals but again, don’t have them written down. There’s a famous quote that loosely says you’re far more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down and read them daily. This quote is true, but not for the reason most people think. Most people think writing your goals down and reminding yourself of them is a magic answer to success. It’s not. The quote is true because those people who write down their goals and read them every day are naturally far more driven and motivated than those who don’t. It has nothing to do with ink on paper, but all to do with the type of people that do such a thing. If your goals aren’t on paper and you don’t review them on a regular basis, are you as driven and motivated as you really think you are?

What Area of Blogging Do You Struggle With the Most?

This second poll was really interesting for me. I was amazed at the wide variation of tasks that bloggers struggle with and even amazed at how many bloggers struggle with certain tasks.

It wasn’t a huge surprise to see 70% of bloggers say writing consistency is their primary struggle. Consistency is something we, as humans, naturally find difficult. The example above of the New Years resolutions to go to the gym and get fit is a classic. I’m not sure of the world stats, but 85% of Australians who pay monthly for a gym membership never attend the gym. Only 15% seem to be able to maintain consistency. (Thanks Craig Harper for that fact).

Other problems that bloggers face range from being unable to get a design they like (How’s that going, Cath?), having the guts to send a good post to another blog as a guest post rather than publishing it on your own blog, and struggling to write good post titles.

Part 2 of this post will come tomorrow, where we’ll be looking at social networking, RSS readers and writing interfaces.

Are you going in to 2009 with a plan for your blog? Are you translating a plan from your head to paper? And what area of blogging do you continue to struggle with? Let us know in the comments!