In blogging it’s common to watch people make mistakes. But some mistakes you see bloggers make are costly, and if they are not corrected they can become the death of a blog. I’ve seen these mistakes not only with new bloggers, but also people who have been in the game awhile.

I’m going to identify 3 common mistakes many bloggers make in their careers, and your simple solution to solving them.

3 Blogging mistakes that are hurting your blog

#1: Your following the crowd

In today’s web society it’s so easy to get sucked in and follow the crowd. You watch Darren Rowse teach others how to blog, so you go ahead and teach the same thing. What you’re not realizing is, Darren has over 100k+ readers who are already reading his blog. What is going to make anyone convinced to go to your site when your writing about the same exact thing?

#2: Not acknowledging your readers

This is something many bloggers fail to realize – it should be considered a privilege that people are taking the time out of their day to read your blog! There are over 100,000,000 blogs on the web, and out of all those blogs they decided to read your site.

As a blogger it’s not only important to acknowledge your readers, but also engage with them and let them know your appreciative that you have them supporting you.

#3: Not identifying your mission statement

It’s important that every blogger explains the reason behind their blog. What is the purpose and what message are you trying to get across to your audience.

For example: Here at Robswebtips, my mission statement is to help others escape the traditional work lifestyle, and live the Internet Lifestyle. I clearly define this by my blogs tag line and my about page.

How to fix these blogging mistakes

#1: Do something different

This is particularly more challenging for crowded niches such as the fitness, make money online and blogging niches, but trust me it can be done. Analyze what your competition is doing and do it better. Add your own twist to it.

If someone is offering a free eBook on how to get a six-pack in 30 days, you can create a course with video, eBooks, podcast, case studies… whatever increases the value and sets yourself aside from the crowd.

#2: Build a community

Instead of blowing your readers off, get out there and engage.  Create eye-appealing content, gain reader feedback with surveys , reply to comments and just let them know you care.

One common misconception I’ve seen before is that bloggers jump to the conclusion that building a community is hard. It’s not hard at all, you’ll actually be surprised how much you stand out by actually engaging with your community. Just get out there and do it!

#3: Clearly identify your mission statement

If you don’t have a mission statement, sit down and ask yourself “what is the purpose of my blog?” What are you trying to help people with?

If you already have one, go ahead and identify it. Clearly state it in your about page and try to incorporate it into your tag line.

Group Discussion

If your guilty of one of these mistakes, don’t feel down. The most successful people in the world have the most mistakes. That’s how we learn.

Also, what are some blogging mistakes you see other bloggers make?

Are you making these 3 blogging mistakes? is a post from: Robswebtips - dot com

Here on Robswebtips it’s my goal to help others live the Internet Lifestyle. However, I only think it’s right to switch things up a bit. I have gotten asked the question previously asking if all the time, work and effort I put into my business is worth it?

My instant response is yes. No thinking involved. But today, I decided to explore the question and bring it to the blog and get a discussion going.

The beginning stages of a business

The long hours with no pay

Starting a business takes time, work and effort. Anyone who has started one knows the process. Think about all the time you’ve put into your business and not getting paid. I can remember when starting off, I’d put in roughly 100 hours of work in and I have not made $1.

The businesses that do not succeed

Back in late 2009, I started up a new company. Spent roughly ~300 hours total working on it and running it before it was sold. Put about $300 into starting it up, and after having it run we were making probably $60/month. I wasn’t happy with the project, so after about 3 months of having the site, I sold it. Long story short, I didn’t profit from it.

Adding into the factor of “Is the Internet Lifestyle Really worth it?” I’ve just added ~300 hours & no profit.

Factoring in the time = money equation

We’re back to the question, is the Internet Lifestyle worth it?

The average U.S person makes $46,326/year on average. (Source here) The average person takes 6-12 months to start making money online. So putting in that your going 6-12 months with little to no pay, your losing out on $23-46,326.

There is no average income for people who work online, simply because they can make as much as they want. So, let’s stick with what we define a “full-time income online.” A full-time income online is considered to be, $3,000. Putting into factor you’ve just put in a 6-12 months of work with no pay, and now your making $3,000/month. You’ve lost $46k, and your income is still shy another $10k.

So, is the Internet Lifestyle worth having?

The freedom

When you run your own business, you have freedom to do what you want, when you want, whenever you want. For example, August 20th & 21st, I took a nice trip to Chicago. I didn’t have to worry about calling a boss to “ask” if  I could take two days off. I can just do it.

The financial freedom

Despite the fact that your first couple months or years might be low income for you, if you keep working hard you can make as much as you want. There are success stories like my friend Pat Flynn who went from $0-200,000 in his first 12 months online. (Click here to see interview)

The happiness

I think this is a home hitter here. Living the Internet Lifestyle allows you to create a lifestyle that fits you. And since your doing what you love, making money from it and forming the lifestyle you want. Your chances of true happiness are much higher.

Group Discussion

If you ask me is the Internet Lifestyle really worth it, I’d say yes. What would you say? Is it worth living for you?

Here are some more great reads about the Internet Lifestyle

• Is the Internet Lifestyle really worth $1,000,000?
• What it means to live the Internet Lifestyle
• The truth behind living the Internet Lifestyle
• 5 Reasons why the Internet Lifestyle is the way to go

Is the Internet Lifestyle Really Worth It? is a post from: Robswebtips - dot com

Today… I’m about to open up a very debatable post. But, I ask that you hear all my points out before commenting, they just might make you wonder.

I was sitting in the office browsing the web when all of a sudden something hit me. Is having a blog really for everyone? Could having a blog do more harm than good for some people?

Why blogging isn’t for everyone

Blogging takes communication

If you’re a blogger you can understand where I’m coming from. When you run a blog, your constantly chatting with people. Whether it’s replying to comments, emails or being active on social networks, your engaging in some type of social communication.

Everyone is not as social. It only dawned on me today that, not everyone is social, which is understandable. Some people do not like engaging in conversation period. So trying to urge someone who is anti-social to have a blog, isn’t a good recipe for success.

Blogging can get personal…

OK… this one really depends on your niche, but stick with me here. Having a blog it’s professional to show a picture of yourself, say who you are and what you do and if you’re in a niche like mine (make money online), you get asked a lot about your income.

Not every person you will meet likes sharing information about themselves to the entire world. I’ve even watched friends of mine not join Facebook because they have to show their picture.

Are we sending out the wrong message here?

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m partially guilty here. Sometimes as bloggers and people who do this for a living, we can get accustomed to sending off the wrong vibe. of making it seem like everyone should blog. Honestly, I would not be surprised if people started blogging because they thought it was the only way to make money online. Take a look at some of the make money online blogs, we all encourage folks to start their own blog. Because people see the majority of successful people who make money online doing it from blogs, they feel they have to as well. (Again, I’m guilty!)

Group Discussion

What do you think? Do you think everyone should have a blog? Do you think that a good percentage of the people who fail online are people who weren’t met to be blogging in the first place?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Why Blogging isn’t for everyone is a post from: Robswebtips - dot com

This is a guest post by Julius Kuhn-Regnier from And Break.

Lots of people are searching for ways to make money online. That’s why there are so many blogs which usually recommend the same kind of techniques to make money.

But what’s really interesting are some creative ways to earn a decent income. And this is exactly what I want to show you in this article.

iPhone Apps

Lots of Internet marketers have been using iPhone apps to pull in huge amounts of money. I am surprised that you can easily make so much money through them but it seems to be a nice way to earn an additional income. Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income has created an iPhone app through which he now earns some lots of money.

But there are also other bloggers who have their own apps. Nathan Hagan also created his own app. The possibilities are there and the market seems to be huge.

Subscription Sites

It’s strange that people would pay to just to be able to have access to a forum. Yet that’s what Webmaster World did. You have to pay in order to be able to access the forum and to post something on it. You actually have to pay $149 to subscribe to Webmaster World for one year. That’s a hefty price but people are also willing to pay so much.

Of course nowadays there are lots of membership sites which charge you on a monthly basis. Still I haven’t come across a forum like Webmaster World that actually charges a membership fee to get access to the site.

Plugin Development

There are many people developing free WordPress plugins. One thing that you need to keep in mind with such plugins is that first of all you can get a huge amount of backlinks through them. The other is that you can even make money through free plugins. When you create a plugin that people find extremely useful they may be willing to donate some money to you. That’s why most developers add a donate section to their WordPress plugin page. These developers also earn money through the traffic and through their expertise.

There is simply no better way to get lots of clients as a plugin developer than by developing a free plugin yourself.

Premium Content

More and more big websites are turning their content from free into paid one. WebDesignLedger is one of these websites to adopt this. They offer great content but you will only be able to access certain files if you have a paid premium account.

They charge $7 per month to have access to their premium files which include WordPress themes, Photoshop brushes, vectors and more. If you have content that people would be willing to pay for then why not add a premium content section to it?

Blogging Services

Andrew from We Build Your Blog is offering blog services on his site. These include setting up a blog, blog maintenance and also writing content. That’s a nice way to earn an additional income and it’s also extremely easy to do. People who have never used WordPress before have a hard time installing it. But as an experienced WordPress user you are able to install it within minutes. So why not sell this service?

Fiverr

I recently found out about Fiverr. It’s a marketplace where people offer services for $5 each and others can buy these services. There are people offering logo designs or setting up a Twitter account for $5. The possibilities are endless.

Find out what you are good at. Can you easily set up blogs? Do you love to design websites? Afterwards go to Fiverr and offer your service there. It’s a nice way to earn some additional income.

Discussion

The examples I have shown above are just examples. There are many more ways you can earn money online. It’s simply about being creative. What do you think? What ways are you using to earn a decent income?

6 Creative Ways to Make Money Online is a post from: Robswebtips - dot com

This is a guest post by Brandon Winters from The Mindset Millionaire.

Well, it would depend on who you ask, right? If you ask the successful internet entrepreneur what he thinks, of course he will laugh with a cheerful chuckle and retort with a question of his own, something like “is the lifestyle you currently live, ever going to be worth $1,000,000?”

…and it will make you think.

If you were to ask that guy that has been getting up between 6 and 7 am for the last 20 years if he thinks the internet lifestyle is really worth $1,000,000 dollars, he would probably look towards the sky, either to the left or right depending on which side of his brain processes imaginary thoughts, and he’ll come back at you with some sort of “I wish…but” comment that is followed up with an excuse why it never happened for him.

So I ask you

All of these questions!

Is the lifestyle you currently live, ever going to be worth $1,000,000?

Do you constantly imagine what a million dollar lifestyle would be like?

Do you ever find yourself making “I wish…but” statements and follow them up with excuses why it can’t happen for you right now?

Challenge Yourself

I always like to extend a challenge to people that will fully tune in to the conversation. So if you are tuned in, I challenge you to understand my game. A million dollars may seem like a foolish game, but that is what makes it cool. When you put the challenge in a game perspective that you seem likely to fail, your attitude changes.

That shift in your mindset releases the fear and anxiety. It unleashes a different potential on your task at hand as you are focused in a new perspective. This perspective is one that is seeking a unique way to succeed. Your mind will work for you when you don’t hold yourself back. I try to get this point across to as many people as possible, simply for the fact that it can be applied to any area of life and you can instantly start seeing more success that is better aligned with your desired outcome.

When you are challenged with a game that seems smaller in your mind’s eye, and your desired outcome is $1,000,000 – bigger action will be seen as necessary. Bigger risk will be seen as calculated because you will have that done already by not focusing on the fear and anxiety.

So living the Internet Lifestyle, is it really worth $1,000,000?

Is this game-like focus on the necessary worth it? Is the release of fear and anxiety from your work worth it? Is the challenge and new perspective worth it? How about when you add it all up?

All of these questions are focus questions. When you ask yourself the right questions, you begin to find the right answers. When you keep asking questions of everyone else before you ask the right questions of yourself, you not only look foolish, but it makes it harder for them to help you get anywhere.

They will only help you spin your wheels for so long.

It’s time to start erasing the actions that spin your wheels, and focusing on making the internet lifestyle worth $1,000,000. It isn’t a question to ask of everyone else, it is a question to ask yourself if you have made the decision to live your life that way.

Million Dollar Freedom | The Mindset Kind

Challenge yourself to enrich your mindset and make your lifestyle worth it to you. If it won’t ever be worth it, why live it? Without excuses, start asking yourself questions that will bring you the freedoms you seek, the money you desire, and lifestyle you want to live. It will start with how you use your mindset, for you or against you, and then it comes down to playing the game that will make it happen.

If you ask me if the Internet Lifestyle is really worth $1,000,000 -

I would have to say that for me, it is going to be worth a whole lot more.

What is it going to be worth to you?

Is the Internet Lifestyle Really Worth $1,000,000? is a post from: Robswebtips - dot com

This is a guest post by Wilson Usman from Wilsonusman.com.

I don’t consider myself a social media expert, nor do I want to be one. But I do want to share with you something that I think has worked for a lot of people and, of course, myself.

Put Others on a Spotlight

If you’ve ever seen other bloggers, especially the A-listers on Twitter and their blogs too, you’ll find a trend… they retweet and talk about other A-listers, and that’s not a bad thing. A lot of their day is spent highlighting the work that these great bloggers have put out there.

Just take a minute right now, and look at Darren Rowse’s Twitter; you will see that a lot of his tweets are retweets for Copyblogger, or DailyBlogtips or some other A-lister.  It really is a nice thing to see too, because online you see a lot of camaraderie and not a lot of competition. Everybody seems to want to help each other out. I personally like retweeting anything that I like and anything that might be relevant to my own followers. On some posts, I’ll also link back to posts that were interesting, or I read and talked about on a post. It’s just the right thing to do.

It’s also good karma, and you’ll see great returns from it. Of course you don’t want to be phony, and do it just because you think people will retweet or link back to your post because you’re doing the same for them. That’s just the wrong way to think.

If you start applying this tip, your results will be amazing. I’ve also put this quick 3 step formula that you can apply to really kick but in social media.

Always Be Listening

Not every big expert out there does it, but the big ones do. An example is Gary Vaynerchuk. He will respond, or at least he did, and now look the respect and following he has grown. He was willing to listen to everybody and respond back no matter what.  If you can listen and learn to communicate like the pros do it, you can really make an impact. But you need to pay attention to everyone, and fulfill that position to the fullest.

Do It the New Way

What I mean is, times are changing and we need to adjust. A good example could be me. For example, when I first quit my job I blogged about that and I’ve blogged about other personal things too, and I’ve realized that readers really enjoy this.

The results from being open, is that I get emails and tons of questions of people asking me how to do certain things, and recommend to them products. It’s my responsibility to not abuse this power to make money from it.

In the business world you don’t have to be out there knocking door-to-door, interrupting and pissing people off; those that embrace this will succeed.

Be Passionate and Do Good

If the goal is to become an influencer and a great communicator, you must not care of the race, age, gender or anything when working with them. Some will know who you are and talk great about you always and some won’t even know who you are. That’s why you should always be focusing on giving the best that you can, so that everything you’ve done before is erased.

A good example is this. Say you go into a market or niche and you don’t have much knowledge about it at first. Your aim should be that whatever you provide must be the best product, or the best service, or whatever it is. It should be great so people can care about you.

If you’re always passionate and doing good, you shouldn’t worry about what others will say. You can’t control what you can’t control. But you can always do GOOD.

Wilson Usman talks about online entrepreneurship and other great stuff about the Internet on his blog. And he really enjoys reading Robwebtips.com

One Thing that I See Real Social Media Experts Do is a post from: Robswebtips - dot com

Goals are something every person should set. Whether it’s to grow your business, or become a better person. Goals are something that needs to be in place if you want to see progress. They give you guidance, and draw out your road map to success.

One thing about goals is, a lot of people set them, but not many people actually take the time to pursue them.

The 5 steps you need to take to achieving your goals

Understand that ANYTHING is achievable

The biggest thing when it comes to achieving your goals is mindset. If you don’t have a positive mindset, you won’t get it done. You will have people tell you can’t do it and you will have people tell you it’s impossible to do it but here’s the thing… Whatever you believe, you can achieve. All you have to do is believe in it and it’s going to get done.

One very valuable life lesson I’ve learned at a young age which I’m thankful for is this – People can steal your money, clothes, cars and whatever else you own. But one thing that cannot steal is what is inside of you. Pride, dignity and belief are three things nobody will ever be able to take away from you unless you let them.

Identify your goals

First things first, identify your goals. What is it you want to achieve? Take the answer to that question and make it your goal. When I told myself I wanted to be a six-figure Pro-blogger, that instantly became my goal. I knew the second I set my mind to it, it was going to get done.

Set long-term goals

Setting long-term goals is important. It gives you a clear focus on where you plan on going. I’ll use myself for example, my goal is to break the six-figure mark by 2010, that’s my long-term goal. Since I’ve now identified my long-term goal (your primary focus) I can start breaking down an analysis of what I need to do in order to make six-figures from my blog.

Set short-term goals

This is something I like to call “land marks” or “stepping-stones.” Short term goals help you build the pathway you need to grow your success and acheive your long-term goal (your primary goal). It is not possible to leap from point A to point E without going through B,C and D. It’s just like saying I want to travel from Chicago to Atlanta but not thinking I’m going to have to drive through the states that are in between.

After you’ve set your primary goal (your long-term goal) start breaking it down into mini-goals that you can tackle and work on achieving.

Take action

One of the differences between people who succeed and people who do not succeed are people who succeed actually take action. My motto is, shut up and just do it. Pretty much what that means is, don’t talk about doing something, just do it. To me, talk is meaningless. A bunch of vibrations coming out someone’s mouth. I’m all about action. If you’re going to say something, then you damn well better do it.

There are no excuses

There is no reason why you cannot do something. If you want something, get out there and do it.

Don’t use the excuse that something is “hard” because it’s not. It’s a challenge, and a challenge can be overcome.

Don’t use the excuse that you “fear” failure. Because the only way to overcome your fear is to face it.

And definitely do not use the excuse you “can’t” do something. Anything you put your mind to, you can do and you will do.

The 5 Steps you need to take to Achieving your Goals is a post from: Robswebtips - dot com

This is a guest post written by Brandon Connell from BrandonConnell.com.

Over the past half-year, I have watched as many noob bloggers jump on the guest posting bandwagon. That’s not a bad thing, as I teach my readers to guest post in order to generate traffic. But what happens when that guest poster writes nothing but the same topic over and over on multiple blogs? I have sat and watched as a couple of bloggers publish “traffic generation tips” articles, and they do not attempt to delve deeper into the subject. They repeat the same blog commenting, forum participation, newsletter, and guest posting tips. It gets to the point that I have no desire to comment on that bloggers articles anymore.

I am not here to rant and complain. I mean, I will simply not comment on such over-spewed articles – period. What I am here to do is to make you realize that if you are doing this, then you are most likely driving away reader interest.

So how does  one go about keeping your content fresh?

One of the biggest ways to keep a fresh perspective is to look at the multitudes of “blogging topics” articles out there. Such articles may give you new ideas that you never thought of before. You can literally find a new topic to blog about just by checking the list articles I mentioned.

Here are a couple to get you started:

• http://www.brandonconnell.com/popular-blogging-topics-for-2010/2010/04/
• http://www.icebluebanana.com/10-ways-to-come-up-with-blogging-topics/
• http://www.brandonconnell.com/28-ways-to-make-the-perfect-article/2010/07/

There are many more great articles out there, and you can find them by searching Google for “popular blogging topics”.

Watch the expiration date

Freshness isn’t guaranteed. Look at article writing like a grocery store. Dates expire on blogging topics and you don’t want to write about something that is no longer relevant. You can still benefit from old topics by the already indexed articles you have written in the past.

What I mean by expiring topics are those topics that are not relevant to today’s society. Let’s say for example that Google closed a loophole that allowed you to get fast 1st page rankings. You can no longer write about that subject as a “trick”. You can however, switch up that subject to write about how it no longer works, and present new options for the same (or similar) results. It would also obviously be known that an old news story is no longer news. Therefore, it is irrelevant to write about at this time.

Listen to your readers

You have an answer to your content needs right in front of your face! Your comments section. Your readers do more than just leave a comment that makes you feel like you are adding points to your score card. They sometimes say things and ask questions that you can easily turn into a future post.

you don’t always have to write about what you “think” is popular. Chances are, you think a topic is popular because you have seen it all over the place on multiple blogs. But look at it like this… If you have read it on so many blogs already, why the heck would you want to add to that massive amount of information that is already out there. More importantly, if you do decide to write about that topic to get in on the traffic, make sure you do not over do it by writing about it multiple times. That is nothing more than overkill. I have had to learn about this on my own, and I was fortunate enough to realize it myself without anyone having to tell me.

I’m guilty!

I understand that some of you that are reading this are already guilty of the “follower” offense. No worries though, because there is nothing to be embarrassed about. You are learning right now and I am positive that you will take this information to heart and not become a repeat offender.

This article is really designed to notify the guilty so that my eyes can stop bleeding. I want to see fresh ideas out there, and I would love to start reading articles from bloggers again who have turned me away because of this offense.

Now tell me… Are you a leader or a follower?

The massive amount of followers overwhelm the leaders is a post from: Robswebtips - dot com

I believe having a blog is one of the most essential tools that any business owner can possibly have. I’ll get into that another day tho. Being that a lot of my friends are Internet marketers I notice one common trend, many of them do not utilize blogs to leverage a successful product launch. Don’t get me wrong, they still run successful product launches. In fact, one of my  buddies just ran a 7-figure product launch in a matter of a couple of days.

However, having a blog is a great way to leverage a product launch. And it will also increase your chances of sales and promotion of your product.

How your blog can leverage a successful product launch

You already have a list of potential customers

Your community is a group of potential customers that you can share your product with. If you have a good community, they will have no problem with checking out your product and even sharing it with their friends. I personally believe that the best type of marketing is word of mouth marketing, because it’s literally social proof that your product is something worth checking out.

You have credibility

How often do you come across a site and purchase a product when you have no idea who’s the person behind it? Having a blog gives a chance for people to get to know who you are. They can learn about you and what your about. I look at a blog as someone’s home, if you can make someone feel like they are at home when they are visiting your blog, then you are doing something right. You want to strive to bring that feeling of comfort to your readers, and once that is tackled you will have instant trust when it comes to you selling something.

You have free traffic coming your way

The friends of mine who don’t have or use blogs to leverage their product launches resort to spending thousands in PPC to drive search engine traffic. You can save all that money by having a blog. You can promote the product with a launch post, send it out to your email list, encourage your community to promote it, promote the product in your sidebar, etc… You don’t have to worry about having to find traffic to drive to your site, when you already have it!

You can gain feedback

Being a customer service professional awhile back and working on the current updates with Robswebtips, I can’t stress how important customer feedback is. You cannot get no better advice than from the potential customers themselves right? Having a blog gives you direct access to ask your readers questions and get their input on the idea. You can see what they like/dislike about your idea and what they would like to see. Without a blog, this is probably impossible to do.

Having a blog can help create product idea’s

You can’t have a successful product launch without first having an idea or a product right? While I was having a conversation with my good friend Thomas Sinfield from Standoutblogger.com, I was discussing with him some idea’s for the Robswebtips relaunch (coming soon) and a new product idea hit me. Because of my blog, I’m able to conduct a mini case study for myself and if it goes well it will turn into a product.

Group Discussion

Not only does having a blog help leverage a successful product launch, but it also stems up some pretty kick-ass idea’s to start a product. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think having a blog helps leverage a successful product launch? Do you think it helps add credibility behind a persons product?

Share your input in the comment’s below. It’s your wonderful input that help keep the community alive!

Hint: Can you guess what the picture means? Has something to do with the “Credibility” portion of this and making people feel at home.

Using Your Blog to Leverage A Successful Product Launch is a post from: Robswebtips - dot com

This is a guest post written by Bruce Serven from BruceServen.com.

There are several definitions of the word hustle – some positive, some clearly negative.  Let’s go with the positive thinking here.  Merriam-Webster defines hustle, in a positive light, as “making strenuous efforts to obtain money, business, and respect”.  How you practice your craft can be what differentiates you being that kid in high school who made some subpar videos playing cover songs and never really went anywhere versus the hustler who worked her ass off, delivered a quality product, and got a major deal for her efforts. Seneca is often quoted as saying that “luck is where preparation meets opportunity”, so let’s take a look at what it takes to get lucky as a hustler by dissecting the activities involved in creating a successful formula.  Let us take a look at the Art and Science of the Hustle.

The Art

• The art of hustling is just doing it.  Get out there and make it happen.
• Whatever you want to do, don’t be afraid to make the ask – the worst that can happen is they say no (ask if they are interested in working with you; ask if they would consider funding your project; ask if they would consider a barter or delayed payment structure until you can get into a better cash flow position; ask if they could help you with a project idea, etc).
• Always be cultivating something new, so that you have a continuous pipeline of potential, and hopefully, expected revenue.  There should always be something lined up to be coming next.  Not only does this give you something to focus on & goals to work towards, but it also forces you to always be trying to think of a way to push forward.  Like any business, you don’t want to forget about your loyal customers, but you also need to be mindful that you must always be bringing in new clients if you want to grow.  Think of it like a garden: if you don’t sow any seeds and cultivate those plants, you won’t be able to harvest any fruits and vegetables later.
• Interject smaller projects between the bigger projects you are working on, so that you can complete projects, get a sense of accomplishment, and therefore be able to celebrate the small victories to keep you motivated, rewarded for all the hard work, and interested in continuing.
• In that group of bigger projects, insure you inject some challenges for you to overcome, that way you are growing yourself (and pushing your comfort zone boundaries) while growing your business and brand.  This makes for a powerful message as a bonus side story that can help you with generating social proof, public relations, and positive buzz in general. Cha-ching!
• Always be on the lookout for new ideas – they can come from anywhere or anyone (including competitors and people who aren’t even in your industry!).  Open your eyes and your mind.
• Be creative, try new things, experiment.  This adds spice to the mix and keeps things interesting.
• Stay on your toes – don’t get comfortable or complacent, because when you do, you’re done.
• Lastly, bring friends.  You need a posse.  You need a support group.  This is important though to caution and make sure that these so called friends are truly friends and not leeches or wolves in sheep’s clothing.  We’ve all seen the numerous stories of a celebrity‘s “friends” who have ripped them off.  By bringing along true friends, you enrich each other’s lives, and open doors to be able to make that much greater of a positive impact to each of your circles of influence.

The Science

• The science of hustling involves developing a system that works for you to consistently produce results.
• Get organized.  This means use a calendar, use a customer relationship management software, use email lists, to do lists, heck hire an assistant if you have to, etc. Whatever it takes for you to get (and stay) organized.  Note if you are short on cash that there are an abundance of free or nearly tools to enable you to do this, so Google is your friend; but also don’t forget that you get what you pay for and to consider your return on investment, so you may have to spend some capital to position yourself to earn revenue by getting all your ducks in a row.
• Identify your best working environment and times.  You may work best at home, at a coffee shop, at a traditional office, in a shared/coworking environment, or where ever; and you may be more productive from 9PM-2AM after the kids have been put to bed or after you get home from work and get everything else done around the house.  Understand when and where you work best and maximize your productivity.
• Know which resources you are optimizing for, be it a shortage of cash, shortage of time, shortage of talent (whether yours or the ability to hire people), etc.  If you know what resources you are short on, you can make appropriate (and better) decisions to accommodate for that.
• Know what drives the people you have in your entourage and in your stable.  Know what motivates them.  It may not be what you think it is, so test your assumptions.  Knowing this will allow you to mitigate against any potential problems as well as to garner greater productivity.
• Think and act strategic, like chess.  If you are a blogger, this means guest post, comment, email, keep an eye on your competitors, make big moves that will better position yourself for a future opportunity (such as moving to a dedicated server way before you have the traffic to demand it).  Plan ahead.  Remember, a failure to plan on your part is not an emergency on anyone else’s part (so if you don’t move to that dedicated server ahead of time, even though it costs more, and you can’t really afford it, aside from the fact that it will challenge you and force you to sell ads or find some other way to get it to pay for itself, by the time you are in a position where you are drawing a lot of traffic and potentially selling ebooks or doing videos or other high traffic content that drives sales, you’ll crash your site and experience a lot of lost revenue, lost customers, and damage your brand in the process).  Can’t stress it enough: Plan ahead. Think strategic.
• Follow up, follow up, and follow up.  It is ridiculous for a deal to fall thru because you failed to follow up on an email or phone call.
• Likewise, make sure you under promise and over deliver.  This means promise it in 30 days but deliver it in seven.  If you do it in reverse (promise it in seven but deliver it in 30 instead), you’ll piss off the customer and damage your brand.
• Build and maintain loyalty.  Reward your community for supporting your efforts.  Add value to their lives (whether that’s emotional such as giving them moral support, physical such as giving away an iPad, financial by offering a cash back rewards [think: affiliate or credit card points] program, or practical by showing them how to do something, etc). Provide exceptional service. Use negative feedback to be constructive and also to potentially convert those complainers to fans (like offering the unhappy customer of a restaurant a complimentary meal to come back and give them another chance to render better than expected service)
• Focus on results.
• Lastly, for the science to be successful, you must eliminate distractions.  If it is not getting you results, and not cultivating relationships, you have to make the hard decisions to cut those distractions out of your life.  This could be that crazy girlfriend who is always nagging you about why you spend so much time away at conferences (where you are networking and negotiating business deals).  It could be the television or video games.  It could be other bad habits.  It could be simply wasting time on Facebook or LinkedIn or reading other people’s blogs rather than crafting your own content and getting a positive return on your invested time.  Make the hard decisions and get those distractions out of your way so that you can be successful.

The Hustle

Put the art and science together in your hustle and you will soon also have a swimming pool of cash just like Scrooge McDuck.

Do you have any suggestions to help improve the games of fellow hustlers?  Is there anything that I didn’t mention that has helped you be successful?  Please share your story in the comments below.

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Bruce is an entrepreneur who strives to make a difference in the lives of people around him by helping them and their businesses to attain success and be awesome.  As much as he hates the word, he is also a blogger & writes at: BruceServen.com and on Twitter at: @BruceServen.

The Art and Science of Hustling is a post from: Robswebtips - dot com