For years now I have been doing carpentry and handyman type work. I have built room additions, homes, condo buildings and have done every aspect of home construction and remodeling from the foundation to the roof. About 7 years ago I got interested in the Internet, SEO, Social Media, Content Writing and started learning about those areas of endeavor with the idea of eventually turning the knowledge into a career.
Recently I was presented with an opportunity that made me realize that I could combine my knowledge from both fields and start a brand new business. That business is "Craftsman Home and Garden".
One facet of the business is the sale of sheds and barns unlimited by size or style. I have a half dozen factory built sheds on display at 723 N. Cable Rd. in Lima Ohio, as well as a full catalog of sheds that will suit most people. We can also custom build any shed or barn you may want. Whether you want a factory built standard shed or a custom shed, delivery is available anywhere in Ohio.
The next facet is decks. We will build any deck you desire anywhere in Ohio. Decks are custom built on your property to your specifications. Whether you want wood or a composite deck, you will get the quality you desire.
We also are doing quality woodworking projects including planters, deck furniture and other wood outside furniture.
As I have the chance I will be posting more info about this new endeavor. I am working on the website for Craftsman Home and Garden and also the Facebook page. Check us out and watch us grow!
Zig Zag Creativity – An interview with Professor Keith Sawyer
I had the great pleasure of having lunch several years back with Professor Keith Sawyer at the University of Cambridge. Keith is Professor of Creativity at Washington University in St. Louis. It was with great expectations that I recently opened a copy of his new book “Zig Zag – The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity”. I was not disappointed.
Keith Sawyer, Psychologist, Jazz Pianist, Creativity expert
Professor Sawyer draws on a wide range of sources, from research through experience gained from his life as a creativity expert and consultant and from insights gained from great creative minds, from Steve Jobs, Ingmar Bergman, Tom Kelly of IDEO and even Charlie Chaplin and Socrates. This wide church provides a mind-expanding and credible grounding for the eight principles he explores at the core of this book.
I asked Keith a few questions about his background in writing this:
Peter: I know you are a jazz musician alongside your day job. Can you say something about the parallels between creativity and improvisation in jazz?
Professor Sawyer: Well in a way, all of life is improvisational! Any time we deviate from a fixed plan, and we take an unexpected turn, we are improvising. And that, I believe, is the essence of the creative process: It’s never a straight path from idea to solution. Creativity is all about engaging in a process that moves you forward, even when you don’t know where you’re going. There are sudden new developments, unexpected failures that sometimes result in new thoughts that then lead down a different path. That’s why I titled the book “Zig Zag: The surprising path to greater creativity.” The “surprise” is that the path is really not very “path-like” at all. It’s more like wandering, almost as if you’re lost. But you have to trust that the process will eventually lead to a creative outcome.
Peter: I’d agree of course, as someone who spends a lot of time improvising in music. Working alongside the great creativity expert Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi must have been something of an experience. What would you offer us as the main learnings you took away from that time?
Professor Sawyer: Mike was a wonderful mentor, and he is a warm and happy person. He was a good role model of how to work hard and have a successful academic career, and yet not be Type A neurotic workaholic. I think I am a workaholic, but maybe something like Type Z. Yes, let’s coin a new personality type right now: Type Z, the person who works hard but in flow and having a great time.
Mike (and his research) taught me the importance of intrinsic motivation in creativity, and also the central role of “problem finding”—it’s so important to ask the right question, before you start working on creative ideas and solutions.
Peter: When work is play, it does not feel like work at all. I guess I have some understanding of Type Z, but I have some way to go! Turning now to creativity and business, I’m often told these days that creativity caused the banking crash, when I put that down to gambling rather than mindful creativity. Can you say something about why we need creativity more than ever at this time?
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Zig Zag Creativity – An interview with Professor Keith Sawyer
Insiders Business Journal Hacked
This week the Insiders Business Journal as well as thousands of other sites that use WordPress including our site, the Seattle Tacoma News was hacked. Apparently over the last couple of weeks there has been a systematic vicious attack going on against websites using the WordPress Content Management System. This hacking attack rendered it impossible for me to even sign into my own websites.
There is an on-going global attack on WordPress sites. This is a highly distributed attack which is affecting virtually every known web host and WordPress site. We have seen over 10,000 IP addresses involved in this attack.
At this time we recommend you login to your WordPress site and change the password. We highly suggest that you use a very strong password including uppercase characters, lowercase characters, numbers and special characters (&$@!*).
There are several things you can do fight these attacks from your end. We highly recommend using WordPress Security plugins such as WordFence along side Better WP Security. Both plugins can be installed directly from your WordPress admin panel. Alternatively you can use htaccess files to protect your WordPress admin directory.
Read More WordPress Security-Global Brute Force Security Attack
The above quote is from my own website hosting company, DFG Hosting. Ironically, although I have had my websites hosted with them for some time now, I never bothered to read their blog.
Continue Reading: Insiders Business Journal Hacked
Optimizing Your Linkedin Profile For SEO
A Complete Linkedin Profile for SEO
Your Linkedin profile is a hub on the Internet that can funnel traffic to your main website or generate a high level of incoming personal activity, if you use a few helpful strategies including optimizing for SEO.The first thing to ensure is that you have filled out your Linkedin profile as completely as possible. I have read a lot of profiles that did not have a picture of the person and the description was sketchy. I honestly don’t know what a people with a Linkedin profile that does not say anything about their self is trying to accomplish, other than trolling the site.
Linkedin SEO Anchor Text Links
Other than the basic description and job/business experience there are a couple of things that will optimize your Linkedin profile for Search Engine Optimization or SEO. The first thing I recommend is properly filling out the description links for your websites, blogs and other media. Go to Linkedin and click on Edit Profile. Then click on Edit Contact Info. This is where you tell everyone what websites you want them to find you or your business on.
Linkedin Website Links
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Optimizing Your Linkedin Profile For SEO
J. Michael Warner Media Network Newsletter #1
The last month has been a flurry of activity as I continue to put together the pieces of my media network that includes the Insiders Business Journal and the Seattle Tacoma News. It is always a challenge to work a full time job and be the sole hat wearer in a start-up business, but I enjoy the work and the challenge. I have one more website to roll out in this media network but will most likely hold off until May or June to launch that site. I have also been approached to put together a site for a local business, so will be working on that.
I would like to thank all the writers participating in this venture. I have spent countless hours looking for writers and that is a work in progress. Right now the submission process for both sites is also a work in progress. Writers that are familiar with Wordpress and have no problem doing their own layout and editing are invited to set up an account, I change the settings from subscriber to author, they then submit articles at will. Other writers are sending me articles as a .doc attachment and I take care of editing through publishing. Some writers have also granted me access to copy and publish material off of their own blogs and websites.
When this project gets to the point that it is generating revenue I intend to have additional programming done to the sites to make the submissions process better than what is currently available. For those that have submitted articles to the former Associated Content website, the process will be similar to what they used.
Traffic to both sites is doing well and increasing. As I write this the Insiders Business Journal is less than 30 days old and already attracting attention. I am not currently paying for any traffic. All traffic to each website is organic and coming from search engine's and social media networks. The number one traffic avenue at this time is Linkedin.
As you can see from the above stats we had around 500 more unique visits in March vs. the Feb. stats. The interesting stat is that for every visit we are getting almost 4 page views. The average for most website would be 2 page views per visit. Four views per visit means that people are interested in what they are reading and want to explore more.
The Insiders Business Journal existed for 21 days as of the end of March. Without paying for any traffic we managed to pull in 745 visitors that looked at a phenomenal 6.23 pages per visit! Traffic may be low, but people are definitely interested in the concept.
All of my activity in promoting and publishing has lead to a fairly intense level of activity with emails, messages and phone calls. I am currently getting well over a hundred emails each day from 4 different systems. So if I missed an email or phone call I apologize and will be working harder to better organize my communications.
This last month I have gone from 380 connections on Linkedin to 1,389. Google Plus and Twitter stats are also on the rise. I know there are people that have 20-30,000 connections on Linkedin, so those numbers may not me impressive to all. Nonetheless I am happy with them and am doing all I can to become familiar with and network with, my connections. One of the main ideas behind my publishing network is to provide a third party avenue for professionals to have their work published and promoted. I spend more time on promoting than I do writing and publishing.
Last buy not least I have started a couple of groups on Linkedin, the Insiders Business International and the Puget Sound Small Business Connections. I also have two groups on Google Plus, the Insider Business International and the Seattle Tacoma Entrepreneurs.
I encourage you to join these groups and participate in their activities. If you or anyone you know would like to provide articles, get a hold of me and lets work together.
by J. Michael Warner
Connect with the Insiders Business Journal and the rest of our media organization on the following sites:
Article Submissions
I would like to thank all the writers participating in this venture. I have spent countless hours looking for writers and that is a work in progress. Right now the submission process for both sites is also a work in progress. Writers that are familiar with Wordpress and have no problem doing their own layout and editing are invited to set up an account, I change the settings from subscriber to author, they then submit articles at will. Other writers are sending me articles as a .doc attachment and I take care of editing through publishing. Some writers have also granted me access to copy and publish material off of their own blogs and websites.
When this project gets to the point that it is generating revenue I intend to have additional programming done to the sites to make the submissions process better than what is currently available. For those that have submitted articles to the former Associated Content website, the process will be similar to what they used.
Network Traffic
Traffic to both sites is doing well and increasing. As I write this the Insiders Business Journal is less than 30 days old and already attracting attention. I am not currently paying for any traffic. All traffic to each website is organic and coming from search engine's and social media networks. The number one traffic avenue at this time is Linkedin.
Seattle Tacoma News Traffic
Insiders Business Journal Traffic
Conclusion
The stats tell me we are on the right track. The concept of what this network of sites is about has evolved some since I first came up with the idea. Think of Success Magazine, Fortune Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. That is the direction we are moving in. The IBJ is of national and international interest, while the STN is region specific.All of my activity in promoting and publishing has lead to a fairly intense level of activity with emails, messages and phone calls. I am currently getting well over a hundred emails each day from 4 different systems. So if I missed an email or phone call I apologize and will be working harder to better organize my communications.
This last month I have gone from 380 connections on Linkedin to 1,389. Google Plus and Twitter stats are also on the rise. I know there are people that have 20-30,000 connections on Linkedin, so those numbers may not me impressive to all. Nonetheless I am happy with them and am doing all I can to become familiar with and network with, my connections. One of the main ideas behind my publishing network is to provide a third party avenue for professionals to have their work published and promoted. I spend more time on promoting than I do writing and publishing. Last buy not least I have started a couple of groups on Linkedin, the Insiders Business International and the Puget Sound Small Business Connections. I also have two groups on Google Plus, the Insider Business International and the Seattle Tacoma Entrepreneurs.
I encourage you to join these groups and participate in their activities. If you or anyone you know would like to provide articles, get a hold of me and lets work together.
by J. Michael Warner
Connect with the Insiders Business Journal and the rest of our media organization on the following sites:
- The Insiders Business International on Linkedin
- The Seattle Tacoma News on Facebook
- The Puget Sound Small Business Group on Linkedin
- The Seattle News on Twitter
- Seattle Tacoma Entrepreneurs on Google Plus
- The Insiders Business International on Google Plus
- Social Media Marketing Lima Ohio
Building A Media Network
The last couple of months have been a blur. I got the Seattle Tacoma News launched and then over the last couple of weeks was able to get the Insiders Business Journal launched. While the Seattle Tacoma News is for business news, ideas and how to articles relevant to the Puget Sound area, the Insiders Business Journal is international.
Writers from many professions have been submitting articles to each site and I am getting queries daily from those interested. As each site grows I have other sites in mind and will launch them when the time is right.
Along with launching these sites I have also started the following groups on Linkedin:
I also manage the following communities on Google Plus
Let's connect and do business!
Writers from many professions have been submitting articles to each site and I am getting queries daily from those interested. As each site grows I have other sites in mind and will launch them when the time is right.
Along with launching these sites I have also started the following groups on Linkedin:
I also manage the following communities on Google Plus
Let's connect and do business!
Writers Wanted
I just finished updating, e.g. completely changing the Writers Wanted page of the Seattle Tacoma News. One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that I can make changes as needed. I think the new Seattle Tacoma News Writers Wanted page will be a little easier for people to understand and figure out if they want to participate in the project.
One of the inspirations for my involvement in publishing online was the company Associated Content. Associated Content was a user generated content site that had articles on everything under the sun. I used to write the occasional article for AC but was always on the lookout for an idea of my own in which to do a user generated content site. Yahoo bought AC a few years ago and I finally came up with my great idea the "Seattle Tacoma News".
In researching my article "TechStars Is Hiring" I found out that the founder and former CEO of Associated Content Luke Beatty is now helping entrepreneurs as a Managing Director of the Boulder TechStars operation. Small world huh!
One of the inspirations for my involvement in publishing online was the company Associated Content. Associated Content was a user generated content site that had articles on everything under the sun. I used to write the occasional article for AC but was always on the lookout for an idea of my own in which to do a user generated content site. Yahoo bought AC a few years ago and I finally came up with my great idea the "Seattle Tacoma News".
In researching my article "TechStars Is Hiring" I found out that the founder and former CEO of Associated Content Luke Beatty is now helping entrepreneurs as a Managing Director of the Boulder TechStars operation. Small world huh!
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