It is important to be moving and working towards something. It this therefore equally important to have clear personal and business goals that you want to achieve.

There is so much going on in our environment that most of it is deleted by our brains because it is deemed to be unimportant to our survival.  Just think of how many people you have passed by over the recent week and how many of them you actually remember.

The advantage of having a clearly defined goal is that you will begin to see the things in you environment that will support the achievement of that goal whereas before it would have gone ignored. As an example, when I bought a new car, I started to see many other exact models of my car on the street as I drove.

It’s not that those cars weren’t there before, it’s that since I have formed a clear picture of this car in my mind, it has become important to me, and I am now able to see it in my environment. The same thing happens with your personal and business goals – once you clearly define them, you will see things in your environment that will help you achieve these goals.

To prove this case, I will provide you with a few examples. In Built to Last, a study which analyzed the top companies that have stood the test of time and continued to outperform their competition, researchers found that the single factor that all of these successful companies had in common was that they had clearly defined missions and values. They knew what they wanted and they went after it.

Another classic example is from Yale University where researchers asked the graduating class of 1953 how many of them had clearly defined written career goals. Only three percent actually did have written goals.

When the researchers returned 20 years later, they interviewed the same people to find out how they fared since graduating in 1953. The results were astonishing. The researchers found that the three percent of people who had written goal were worth more in financial terms than the entire 97 percent of people combined! And on other measures such as happiness and quality of life, the three percent with written goals also scored a higher average.

Goal setting works – put its power to use today to help you build the company of your dreams.

It’s time for another SEO Advice post! Last week, I offered free SEO advice to Home Warranty Reviews. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader Kevin Yapjoco, from the Sylvia Manor.

Sylvia Manor - www.sylviamanor.com

Hi!

Here’s a site I developed and I need your thoughts.

http://www.sylviamanor.com/

Thanks!

Kevin Yapjoco

My Recommendations

1) Use Your Keywords

Judging from your title tag, you are trying to rank for the keywords Boutique Hotel and Bacolod City. You do a good job of mentioning Bacolod City multiple times on the page (three times) but you only mention boutique hotel once. A good rule of thumb is to use the keyword every two paragraphs. Don’t keyword stuff and put in boutique hotel just for the sake of it. You should use it so that it makes sense to the readers and will help drive traffic from the search engines.

2) Add More Content

It appears that you have a very simple website design with a limited number of pages (facilities, reservations, etc). If you want to drive more traffic you should consider writing keyword-themed articles and posting them on your site. For example, an article about Bacolod City would be useful and you can mention some of the local restaurants and attractions. It’s a value add to your guests and will help drive Bacolod City related traffic to your website. Think of the different keywords that your target audience would enter into Google and create content around those keywords so you can get a greater share of the search engine traffic.

3) SpyFu Recommendations

According to SpyFu, here is how you rank for the important keywords for your site:

• #11 bacolod hotels
• #12 bacolod hotels
• #16 bacolod city map
• #17 bacolod city
• #17 bacolod city map

All of your results are on the second page which greatly reduces your visibility compared to being on page one. Get more links to your site, especially from other Bacolod related websites. Because they will be relevant links to Bacolod City, your ability to get on page one will be greatly increased.

Good luck Kevin!

Readers, what do you think about Sylvia Manor?

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!

If you’re a true entrepreneur then you’re always looking out for business opportunities, regardless of what the economy looks like.

Almost anyone can make money in a hot economy.

Where you really develop your business skills is when times are not as good and you need to fight for every dollar you bring into your company.

Lyved recently put out a list of the top 9 ways you can take advantage of a terrible economy. The top 5 were:

1. Buy foreclosures and invest in real estate

It’s a buyer’s market for sure. You don’t want to look back in ten years from now and have a “shoulda, coulda, woulda” moment. Even if prices aren’t low in your area, explore different towns and states for commercial locations and empty lots. Even if you don’t have the resources and funds to develop right now, stake your claim while you can.

2. Invest in green technology

High oil prices are igniting interest in alternative fuels and green technology. If you’re active in the stock markets, perhaps you should consider doing some research on emerging green companies. If you’re not an active trader, another way to invest is to explore purchasing a hybrid or electric car. It might be costly now, but in a few years you’ll be happy.

3. Start a company

Sure, there are a lot of companies shutting down but this maybe the right time to start a company up. Here are some tips to think about if you want to launch a start up:

- Look for an industry or market with a large number of businesses closing. Are the big competitors shutting down? If so, you’ll have less competition.

- Research the reason why they closed.

- Find a solution and an opportunity in what they did wrong.

- Many of the companies shutting down are large corporations. So one of the best things going for you is being small but thinking big.

4. Switch careers

I know exactly what you’re thinking or even saying right now, “well there are no jobs, and my job’s safe.” Is it really though? Do you like what you do? Is there a long commute? And many expenses? You must ask yourself questions like these. Wouldn’t you rather be your own boss? Or have a job that you enjoy so much you don’t care what you get paid or what it costs you to get there?

5. Move somewhere you’ve always wanted to

A location or town you’ve dreamed about living in might be at its most affordable right now. Seize this window of opportunity to make a big change.

Rounding out the top 9 were:

6. Learn
7. Go on vacation!
8. Get your voice out there
9. Break bad habits & modify your lifestyle

How do you plan on making money in this economy? What happens if it gets worse?

Hewlett and his fellow Stanford pal, Dave Packard, might not have planned for their success, but the two friends would go on to create what is today the largest information technology company in the world.

From their days tinkering with gadgets in Packard’s one-car garage, to becoming two of the founding fathers of Silicon Valley, Hewlett and Packard have left a company – and a legacy – that has stood the test of time.

The story of Hewlett and Packard has become legendary throughout Silicon Valley: two guys who started off in a small garage with just a few hundred dollars go on to create the largest IT company in the world.

How did they do it? How did these two college buddies work their way out of the garage and into the homes and offices of consumers around the world?

“Here we were with about $500 in capital trying whatever someone thought we might be able to do. So we got into this thing not by design but because it worked out that way.

I’d always been interested in scientific things, but my father – who died when I was 12 – was a greatly beloved doctor, and I did not want to compete with his image, so instead of getting interested in medicine I invested a lot of hours disassembling door locks and things like that. My mother just called it mischief.

When I talked to business schools occasionally, the professor of management is devastated when I say we didn’t have any plans when we started. We really didn’t know if this oscillator was any good. We simply put one together that worked pretty well, sent a letter out to universities and others, got three or four orders, and tried it again.

We were just opportunistic. We did anything to bring in a nickel. We made a bowling alley foul-line indicator, a clock drive for a telescope, a thing to make a urinal flush automatically, and a shock machine to make people lose weight.

We knew what technology was available, and we figured out how little bits of it would fit within the area where we wanted to be. There was not one giant step that we took at any point; there were a lot of little steps. Pretty much we just stuck to our knitting. I think we were concerned about making a technical contribution and we operated on the assumption that if we made a contribution to society, rewards would follow.

We wished to operate, as much as possible, on a pay-as-you-go basis, that our growth be financed by our earnings and not by debt.

I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company’s existence, we have to go deeper to find our real reason for being…A group of people get together and exist as an institution that we call a company…to do something worthwhile – they make a contribution to society.“

This week’s Entrepreneur University comes thanks to Mark Tewart. Mark started in the automotive industry as a salesperson in the early 1980s. Mark has been a Salesperson, Leasing Manager, F&I Manager, General Sales Manager and General Manager for two of the largest automotive chains in the country.

Today Mark shares his advice for how to “fake it until you make it”:

“You are who you decide to be at any given moment. It does not take money, a degree, a certain age, a certain appearance, tons of experience, knowing the right people, past success or any other qualifying factor that you may be currently using as a subconscious roadblock to your desired success. Your belief system creates your results both past and present. If your current belief system is not what it should be to support your success, you must fake it, till you make it.

If you currently don’t appear to be on the path that will create the level of success in the form you desire, you must begin to identify the mental programming that is limiting your success before you can change your resulting limiting actions.

You must pay close attention to your inner-dialogue when you write goals or have thoughts about anything you desire. When thinking of your goals, if you repeatedly think of the specific reasons of how and why your goal may be hard to obtain, you are creating the “When-Then Syndrome.” Your subconscious identifies your current programming that tells you that for X to occur you must first have Y. If that is the case, your current mental programming is limited and will not allow you to break through your current barriers to further success.

Write down the first twenty mental images or messages you heard or were taught about money. When closely examined, most of the images and messages remembered will be limited, negative, and fear based. Those negative messages and images have taken a life of their own and have been accepted in your subconscious as absolute truths. To increase money, you must identify your current limiting messages and rewrite the messages to create accepted new truths.

Every person you come into contact with tries to define you based upon his/her own thoughts and beliefs. Your workplace is full of people with their own limiting mental programming that want to define you in a way that makes them feel better about themselves. People will create images such as “you are just lucky” or “the favorite of the boss” or “a weak sales person”. So often you act in your work environment in a role based upon the images and messages accepted by your subconscious. Unfortunately, your subconscious accepts all images and messages without filtering.

However, you can overwhelm the negative messages with your own positive messages. Your conscious mind will choose and react to the strongest messages being given to it. Don’t allow others to create your destiny based upon their own limited beliefs.

Your subconscious can act as an automatic responder in a positive form just as it can negatively. You must bombard your mind with positive and repetitive images for your conscious mind to react with positive messages. Read and listen to the material that will support you in creating the images you desire, while reducing and eliminating the negative influences you encounter from relatives, co-workers, and the news. You create your own reality. It’s your responsibility to choose the right sources of information to saturate your brain with.

To start manifesting your desires, you must become clear on your goals. Write what you want in present tense using vivid details of your emotions and thoughts at the time of obtaining those goals. The repetitive conditioning of your subconscious with the imagery you have created will begin to grow just as your muscles grow by the repetitive action of lifting weights.

Soon your positive imagery will be so strong that your belief system will accept this as reality before it has ever transpired as reality. There will no difference between your chosen reality and your current state. Your belief system will accept each step and each day as a part of your path to success. Dare today to choose what you desire and the actions that support those desires.”

What have you done to fake it until you make it? Do you have any stories to share?

Our 23rd Review our Blog entry comes thanks to Rachel Gordon from Cornell University’s eClips. You can read what she had to say about us in his blog post: YoungEntrepreneur Blog.

eClips is the premiere video clip collection on Entrepreneurship, Business, and Leadership. eClips provides wisdom from the journeys of entrepreneurs and other business leaders and experts. The e-Clips collection was crafted by Dr. Deborah Streeter and contains thousands of video clips that were created from in-depth video interviews or presentations by entrepreneurs and other experts involved with supporting entrepreneurship and small businesses. Interviewees include startup and experienced entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, bankers, angel investors, and employees of startup companies.

Thanks for the review Rachel!

If you are interested in doing a review, check out our Review Our Blog initiative for instructions.

Who is going to BlogWorld 2008?

The 2008 BlogWorld & New Media Expo will take place September 20-21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, with the exclusive “Executive & Entrepreneur” conference beginning September 19th. The first and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference, and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of blogging and new media.

In addition to the only industry-wide exhibition, BlogWorld features the largest blogging conference in the world including more than 50 seminars, panel discussions and keynotes from iconic personalities on the leading-edge of online technology and internet-savvy business.

If you are currently blogging, vlogging, podcasting, producing other forms of new media content, entering the new media industry, or just want to know what the blogosphere is all about, then you need to be at the most comprehensive blogging convention–BlogWorld & New Media Expo. Located in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center at: 3150 Paradise Road, Las Vegas, NV 89109.

I personally am not able to make it but Adam Toren, one of the YoungEntrepreneur.com founders will be there and he wants to meet you! Here is an open invitation from him:

“Hi everyone!

We would like to invite all of our fellow members and site visitors to attend the much anticipated 2008 Blog World Expo in Las Vegas. The founders of YoungEntrepreneur.com will be there along with other Media Mavericks and Leaders in the Entrepreneurial world! If you want to attend this once a year event, just click the link below and sign up with the discount link (if you sign up now you will save some money for your admission).

Reply to this post if you sign up as we would love to meet the YE members and visitors in person in Las Vegas! This Expo is great for networking and meeting like-minded individuals plus the guest speakers will be superb!”

This is the link Adam is referring to.

Have you been to a BlogWorld before? Are you planning on attending this year?

It’s time for another SEO Advice post! Two weeks, I offered free SEO advice to SkinB5. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader Krupesh, from Home Warranty Reviews.

Home Warranty Reviews - www.homewarrantyreviews.com

Hi

My website is http://www.homewarrantyreviews.com

I could use your advise. I have this site online for about an year, but haven’t been successful in in improving page ranking yet, although I have good content and useful rating info not available anywhere else on the web. This site is about home warranty - blogging and user generated reviews.

Thanks

–
Krupesh

My Recommendations

1) Write More Content

You rank #1 in Google for Home Warranty Reviews but considering your domain name is HomeWarrantyReviews.com, this isn’t much of a stretch. According to the article category listing, you only have 21 articles posted on your site. You should really focus in on writing more frequently. The more quality content you have, the more chances you have of ranking in Google for your pages. Also remember to make your pages have at least 300 words of content. Even if you only write two new articles per week, if you do that for the next year you’ll have over 100 pages of new content for your site that will get picked up by Google.

2) Get More Links

You’re in a very difficult industry to rank for and, judging from the number of Google Ads on the site, you’re trying to capitalize on this by selling ad space. If you want to compete for keywords other than “Home Warranty Reviews” you’re going to have to get more links and a higher Page Rank. Right now your home page is a PR 3 but many of your articles carry a PR of 0. It’s going to be hard to rank in such a competitive field if you don’t have any Page Rank. Get involved in forums, write press releases, submit to article directories and engage in other link building activities to get your individual pages ranked higher.

3) SpyFu Recommendations

According to SpyFu, you only rank on the first page in Google for three other important keywords: ge home warranty, home warranty policies, and fidelity home warranty. It’s time to kick up your content into high gear and get more incoming links so you can get a few more pages up in Google’s index!

Good luck Krupesh!

Readers, what do you think about Home Warranty Reviews?

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!

Do you have dreams of being a millionaire?

How about making that first billion?

To make it easier, try picking up some dollars from Zimbabwe.

The central bank of Zimbabwe recently introduced the $100 billion bill - now that is something to show off!

Unfortunately, due to rocketing inflation, the $100 billion bill can’t even buy you a loaf of bread.

You would be lucky to get four oranges for it.

The country’s official inflation rate is 2.2 million percent, an amount that is difficult to even contemplate.

When I heard about the announcement it reminded me of a family friend’s visit to my home from Alabama a number of years ago.

He was a wealthy, successful entrepreneur who told me that the hardest million to make is the first million.

He then handed me a 1,000,000 Turkish Lira bill ($US value less than $1 at the time) and told me that I had my first million and to now go after my second.

If you want to impress your friends and show them how you made your first hundred billion, why not pick up some Zimbabwe currency?

Jared might have joked about her but J.K. Rowling has been an inspiration for many entrepreneurs.

Rowling was a single mother living on welfare. Working as a secretary was not how she had envisioned her life. She had admittedly reached her own personal rock bottom. Without even enough money to pay the electricity bill, Rowling knew she had to do something to provide a better life for her baby daughter.

But what, she wondered. The answer came to her while riding the train one day; that was when Harry Potter came to life. Today, with over 325 million book sales, the Potter series has not only spawned a worldwide reading revolution, but has taken Rowling off of welfare and turned her into a billionaire.

While she might not have expected her own success, Rowling has written herself – and her young wizard friend – into households across the world. Even people who have not read a single book in their life seem to now be finding themselves reading the Harry Potter series.

How did this one time unemployed single mother living on welfare find her way not only into the world of the writing elite, but also into mainstream pop culture?

“Ever since Rabbit and Miss Bee, I have wanted to be a writer, though I rarely told anyone so. I was afraid they’d tell me I didn’t have a hope. I had written two novels before I had the idea for Harry, though I’d never tried to get them published, and a good job too – I don’t think they were very good.

I was very low and I had to achieve something. Without the challenge, I would have gone stark raving mad. I knew how difficult it would be just to get a book published. I was a completely unknown writer. It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve. I was determined to try. I was determined to try because, frankly, my life was such a mess at this point, what – what was the worst that could happen? Everyone turn me down? Big deal.

Where the idea for Harry Potter actually came from, I really couldn’t tell you. I was traveling on a train between Manchester and London and it just popped into my head. I spent four hours thinking about what Hogwarts would be like – the most interesting train journey I’ve ever taken. By the time I got off at King’s Cross, many of the characters in the books had already been invented. Harry just strolled into my head fully formed.

The height of my ambition for these books was, well frankly, to get reviewed. A lot of children’s books don’t even get reviewed – forget good review, bad review.

I just wrote the sort of thing I liked reading when I was younger (and still enjoy now!). I didn’t expect lots of people to like them, in fact, I never really thought much past getting them published. I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It’s totally for myself.“