Time For A Change?

Working hard on my freelance writing site. Not ready for prime
time as yet, but then neither was this blog in 1995.

It's been a learning experience. Funny monetizing this blog was
not one of my goals for writing...I was either being altruistic
or very, very naive. Likely both.

This blog has been on the first page of Google (it's not hard to
do, so stop worrying about it) and has had up to 100 readers in
one day....that was weird, even for me.

And during all that time, maybe 3 people commented. Guess because
it's Blogger and Blogspot..no "professional" would use such a thing.
Especially now that there's paid themes, WP, Drupal, Joomla and only
God knows what else.

Know what? I don't care. Really. Blogger and the Google team have been
very accommodating to my fledgling writing endeavors.

There have been times when it seemed my posts were pushing
the limits, but the blog wasn't deleted. That's my idea of tolerance!

I'm back, let's hope a bit wiser. This is still a journey. Thank you
for being brave (or crazy) enough to come along.

Until next time, I leave you with this -

Tough times never last, but tough people do.~Robert H. Schuller

Return of a Mensch

Hey Folks...
It's been some time since my last post. If you've wondered where I went...
all over the map, dropped the ball on my business and starting over.

One thing about good advice - you rarely listen to your own. Thanks to a
few ghost-mentors online, I'm back on track. Enough about that.
Let's move on, shall we.

First up
I'm on Twitter. Yeah, yeah I know in my post last year my opinion was to wait 5 years.
I still think some of you should. Here's why:

1. Tweeting Irrelevant Posts
Come on now. Do you really think that telling everyone on earth that
you have warts makes you more human? It makes you a schmuck.

No one cares except maybe your S.O., physician and family. Share that on
Facebook where it belongs. Not where your colleagues and people you want to
do business with are viewing it.

2. Following Any and Everybody
Do you really want to try and keep up with 1,000+ people. Who are they anyway?
Are they people who you can honestly say are prospective clients or
customers you want to do work with?

My take on Twitter is to follow those people who have something to say that
either:
A. Make me a better person
B. Help me be a better entrepreneur
C. Help me accomplish my goals (experience and common sense
required.)

Other than that, I don't want you to follow me expecting me to follow you.
I've seen too many internet marketers (their term,not mine) whose
sole Tweets are shortened links to bland, do nothing, who cares land.

Well, that's it for today and I leave you with this:

Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number
of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of
everything ~Sydney Smith

Twitter For Solo Entrepreneurs? Maybe 5 Years From Now.

Hey Guys,
Just read this post from GigaOm, Twitter Used By 8 Percent
of American Internet Users. And unless your customers are
18-24 year old, urban youth - you may want to take another
look at how you're using Twitter.

I've said it in prior posts: Know your customers and clients,
but don't spend stupid money playing follow-the-hype.

When you are an independent small business, income does
not equate to "getting the word out".

Either the people who have an interest in what you
sell and money to pay you are where your small marketing budget is
spent, or you're "spraying and praying".

For those of you who are wondering when I'll start giving
you these nifty tips again - have no fear, 2011 is a brand
new year for TSG!

We're going to go down rabbit holes to increase your business
income, market smarter and get more qualified prospects coming
to your business.

And yes - there will be more sources for you to ramp up your
Solo Entrepreneur Business like never before. Screw the economy!