eSoup

How To Schedule Your Blogging Time Like A Professional Writer

Whether you think of yourself as a professional writer or not, if you have a blog (or two, or three, or four, or more!), it's a sure thing that you'll find yourself writing pretty much every day, and after a while you'll start to wonder:

How could I be organizing my time in such a way as to get the most creativity and productivity out of my blogging time?

I found myself in that situation last year, and I discovered that the difference between being able to post 3 times a week (or less) on one blog and being able to post twice a day on multiple blogs was all determined in how I scheduled my writing time.

The Meaning Of The Web In 3 Words: Mr. Splashy Pants

Lately I've been pondering 3 seemingly unrelated internet-y things:

• How addictive my fave site Cute Overload is (truly, I cannot stay away from it. It's like an adorable form or crack or something)
• What makes content turn "viral" on the internet, and what can we learn from those folks who manage to hit the viral marketing yummy sweet spot?
• How can the immense power of social media be used to impact and improve the real world?

Well, in a really unbelievable cosmic coordination of events, today on Servant of Chaos I find all of these ponderings addressed in 3 simple, silly words: Mr. Splashy Pants...

What Does Your Virtual Office Look Like?

The cool thing about having a virtual business is that your office can look however you like and be wherever you like, and we tend to set things up in a way that just works best for us. It seems like the variations of our virtual workspaces are endless.

For example, a couple weeks ago we were talking about how some online entrepreneurs were renting outside office space at cool co-working facilities. There are other folks I know who sail around the world and have their office on their boat. Others of us consider cafes and coffee shops our main office. Some of us are completely portable and like to work outdoors.

Whatever the case, I’d love to see what your virtual office setup looks like. For those who are always on the go, just take a photo of the office you're using today. 

Let's hear from ya--please post a picture or video to your blog or to flickr or YouTube (or whatever) and leave a link in the comments below and tell us about your "rig"--you know, your office setup  .

OR...If you're not blog or flickr inclined, just email me your photos and "rig" info.

I'll collect the photos and post them all here so we'll have a virtual office library of sorts!

I'll go first...

Is Your Virtual Business Thriving? Please Share Your Best Advice!

When you earn money by something of your own creation, how much you earn is not a superficial fact--it is often a reflection of part of who we are.

It reflects our diligence, creativity, problem solving abilities, our integrity in creating great products and services that people want and that we stand proudly behind.

In much the same way someone who has built his own house with his own two hands will proudly tell you how many hours he spent working on it, how many nails he used, what kind of lumber he used, how many bruises he got, and how much the house is now worth, so an entrepreneur will likely be willing to give you an idea of what went into building his work of art (his business).

An entrepreneur who shares with us that his business is thriving is telling us a whole bunch more than just how much money he makes--he's telling us that he has found a way to create and run an successful online business, one that endures for years and years and one that continues to grow with his dreams.

When Is It Time To Get An Outside-The-House Office?

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine;told me he was looking at office space at this cool "collaborative co-working facility" (this is a more space age way of saying "office") called The Hive.

Undoubtedly it's much more cool than the office in my house (you should see the photos of the "chillout room" at their website, and they have a Wii!), but I wondered,

• Exactly what type of internet worker would really need to rent office space?
• Haven't we all been trying to get away from fluorescent lights and cubicles?
• Why not just work at home or at the cafe?

I had a few ideas at the as to the answer to these questions in respect to an entrepreneur with my friend's needs, but a new facet to this "virtual worker having space outside the home" idea popped up today when I found out one of my clients was actually doing something similar!

His reasons for getting outside space were different from my friend's, but I thought "Aha, I see a pattern here!"

Some very successful online entrepreneurs are yearning for a more structured workspace where they can get more work done, meet with in-person clients, and possibly socialize and collaborate with colleagues and potential clients.

Let's take a close look at these questions and discover when it's time to get an outside-the-house office.

A Cry For Help: I'm finally buying a Mac

Well,it was inevitable that I would finally cave.

I don't know what it is about me, but I think I might be at least part Amish because I tend to resist technological advancement until I'm dragged up to speed by caring and super tech savvy friends and relatives.

Actually the final straw in my decision to get a Mac was these commercials. I am not impressed by pretty colors and design--I just want the computer that works the best, and after these commercials have pummeled my psyche for the past year or so, and after almost all the tech gods and goddesses I know have switched to Macs, I've finally decided to take the plunge to.

I'm exhilarated and overwhelmed at the same time, because I have no idea what kind to get. I don't know anything about any types of Macs, and of course the online Apple store is "doing updates" so no info is available there.

Young Geniuses and Old Masters: Two Life Cycles Of Creativity

One thing that's pretty hard to miss if you spend any time in the web/tech world is that many of the superstars/geniuses are on the youngish side, oftentimes still in their 20's.

These guys are inventing groundbreaking products, creating jobs for themselves that have never been in existence in the world before, and living lives filled with freedom, creativity and invention.

I don't think I need to give ya a detailed list of young upstarts and their accomplishments--you know who they are. Just think of the twenty-somethings Ben and Mena Trott (creators Six Apart), David Heinemeier Hansson (creator of Ruby On Rails), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (creators of Google), to name a few.

Seeing the amazing accomplishments of these younguns is enough to make anyone over the age of 21 who has not already created their history making product/site/language feel like an underachiever, but even if you're in your later 20's, 30's, 50's, or 70's don't start panicking yet.

HowTo Take A Spontaneous Day Off & Still Keep Your Business Running Smoothly

Entrepreneurs have to be the hardest working folks on the planet.

We usually carry much or all of the work load for our businesses, and that makes it difficult to take days off. We are human, however, and there will be days when for one reason or another we're just not feeling up to par.

While it may be tempting to "gut it out" and just work through the pain, I think a healthier and more productive strategy is to take the day off, rest and pamper ourselves so that we can recuperate our strength and bounce back fast.

Taking a spontaneous day off is sooo much easier if, during healthier times, you've put a safety net system in place for those pesky unforeseen sick, mental health, or family emergency days.

Top 5 Online Branding Tips for Creating a Kick-Ass Website

  Loud and Clear 
  Originally uploaded by Craig Shillington

Many internet business owners (myself included) question the need for an old fashioned static website.

I mean, after all if you've got a blog chances are that it's getting waaaaay more traffic than your static website, so why not concentrate your business web presence on your blog, rather than keeping a separate biz website? Why not set things up so that potential clients are directed to the business blog, rather than to your static "business only" website?

For us internet business owners, having a strong web presence is a HUGE deal, so I wanted to really think things out and make some educated decisions. Basically I'm thinking that I want to make better use of my blog as a marketing platform for my biz, possibly just have a web page for my biz going off of my blog rather than a separate website.

As I was pondering how to go about doing a better job with my online marketing, I remembered a really helpful video that web marketing consultant Jason Broadwater did about how to create a strong web presence.

If you're struggling with the whole web presence conundrum, Jason's tips on online branding may help you get some direction. They've definitely helped me. Here's his advice for creating a solid online brand (which we definitely need in order to create an effective website):

Top 10 Most Painfully Funny Company URLs

As I was telling ya a few days ago, the domain name you choose for your site is uber-important.

Pick a really good domain name and folks will remember you for it.

Pick a really bad one and folks will  remember you for it too, but for all the wrong reasons  .

These poor, unfortunate companies who in real life offer completely innocent products are being remembered for the latter reason. They picked a domain name that made sense to them, but they obviously didn't consider hard enough what the URL would look like to your average stopper-by.

Entrepreneurs, let us learn from their mistakes, shall we?