DISQUS

Hi Marcus

IMHO your spot on. And the same goes for 'static' websites. You can use both to generate 'traffic' one way or the other, but it comes down to content (trust building etc) to turn readers/visitors into 'customers' (if that's your goal). And no hype is going to realise that for you, it's your own hard work that will make it real ;-)

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

Hi Mark

You must be 'tuned' in to the same commercial as me ;-)

Swamped, swamped - but good swamped ;-)

Take care, we know you love us, love you back.


Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

Hi Marcus

I am intrigued as to where this will take you/us.
But....
"And wouldn’t it be cool if we knew the most effective ways to work together?"
knowing what works now (or when you/we find out) doesn't have to mean it will work 'tomorrow' ;-)

At the moment I think the best way to help the 1% of bloggers who create content (that phrase comes from Citizen Marketers - great book!) is to give 'new' bloggers confidence - by leaving proper, meaningful comments on their posts.

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

Hi Mark

“When I tell people I have published 160 articles about leadership on the web, they say, ‘Ooooh!’ When I tell them I’m a blogger, they say I’m weird.”

That was Kent Blumberg.

And oh yes, boy, does the whole of the SOBCon event inspire me!

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

Hi Marcus

I like your question, so my contribution is:
Kent Blumberg (most of his posts on managing and leadership makes you stop and think)

Hi Marcus

I have mixed feeling about meme's. Especially when it 'involves' ranking efforts. Only if a meme is about generating conversations I will 'take-it-on'.

Robert Hruzek has done something else: a group writers project, would you consider that a meme? It was great fun participating, as was with the 'Gotta-get-goals' meme and the Ultimate Guide to Productivity.

It does give you the chance to 'meet' other, new interesting bloggers.

Hi Marcus

How true ;-)

When I wrote The Kiss Business I'd just plodded on - to get my story written - , even ignoring my double Dutch English at times. I felt safe in doing so, because in the end I knew three very kind people would help me polish the story. They made it 'shine' ;-)

And of course I acknowledged them on the 'dedicated to' page - ever grateful for their help.

Hi Marcus

I'll have to promise myself to follow his steps from now on. Kent is a great 'help' in keeping focused.

( I'll get lost otherwise in too many things to do, too little time, too many 'scrambled' priorities and hence nothing will get done properly - not even taking care of people, sharing and learning all things related)

Hi Marcus (and all others)

We all 'struggle' with priorities (some more than others, or some times more than others). Kent Blumberg just wrote a post about focus and priorities. It's about teams and management and businesses, but I personally feel his advice can be used in many (if not any) situation.
http://kentblumberg.typepad.com/kent_blumberg/2...

I for one will follow his list and advice in business as well as in my personal life (the 'distinction' between the two sometimes gets lost ;-))

Happy Easter my friend

Hi Mark and all others.

Not that I'm struggling with this, on the contrary, it made me quiet again and kind of peaceful as if I'm 'on to something'.

It is a large post Mark, so allow me to quote several sentences before commenting on them (I will loose track of my on thoughts otherwise):

"although I qualify that somewhat to separate myself from folks who seem to read it as a book of answers...The Bible has one answer: Itself. In the beginning was the Word."

I'm am with you here: the words in The Bible are not all the answers, the answers to our doubting questions (on life, on God, on the world) are in us - as in how we read those words and 'translate' them for ourselves.

"I know all of you share the same desire to know God intimately. We want God to speak to us.
And God does. God does speak to me, but he does so in ways that require faith."

My 'struggle' is with this part, struggle as in: is that what I really desire?
Part of me says yes, part of me says: no, I want to understand myself and my fellow human beings intimately. (And then I think: that's the same principle, so I understand where Lisa's thoughts and words in the first post came from).

Which brings me to your last question Mark: did you get an answer?
I think you did, several in fact. Confirmation that you're not alone in doubting, confirmation that you received them by faith (your faith, my faith in humanity).

Hope this makes sense, have to think/ponder on this a while longer, and perhaps always will (which on its own is good)

You're welcome Marcus.

Already send the link to a very good friend of mine to make him ponder also.

Like I said in my earlier comment: your 'comment' touched a nerve and made me quiet for a while, wondering about my own 'point in time-life'. Felt like I was a bit in 'emotional turmoil' for various - not serious - reasons (mid-life crisis?) and your post (which I read on Sunday afternoon, just after I wrote my "gotta get goals" meme post, also a bit emotional filled) gave me - as Eve would say - : a kick in the pants.

Am clear in the head again, grateful for your post and your 'daring' to post it.

Bless you my friend

Marcus, wow

Didn't know first to smile, to raise my eyebrows or just to read on. Did the first and the latter ;-)

You've touched on something here my friend. Must say I'm not 'religious' (call myself a Christian, am a follower of the teachings of Jesus and think I pray sometimes) but you've touched a nerve.

Don't know what comment I would leave on that blog, probably would just read the posts and comments and would feel blessed I'm rich and content with what I have and the friends and freedom I have compared to many others.

Bless you, my friend

Never mind the lost comment of me, Marcus (was about Spring cleaning ;-) - my partner handles that).

Funny, blogging has done two things for me recently: re-found my writers bug (short stories, more journalist like) AND visions for our business (or marketing, but that's the same). So in fact, double whammy ;-)

Hi Mark

Great how you've come up with in my eyes (executer, princes of execution ;-)) the other side of the coin.

Makes me understand better.

Dear Ted (sorry to interfere Mark) your
"I’m just over 50 so my words here probably shouldn’t count."
makes me feel soooo old (and I'm just 45).
You're as young or as old as you feel/do/act and besides that, for months now my 'greatest' fan is an 60 year old accountant who loves reading adn writing (still have to persuade him to start a blog, his wise words would find a large following straight away).

Everybody counts, age doesn't!

Hi Mark

I don't share your worries, nor do I see your vision of Sci-Fi. I think both will stay/develop.
POD is getting cheaper and easily available for everyone who thinks he/she's got a story to publish (bloggers and non-bloggers), I've done my business novel with POD and it didn' cost me that much.
So there will be more competition among 'real hardcopy publications, but on the same time PC or screen reading will become more popular, especially when simple 'reading'tools are getting cheaper also.

But....
can you scurl-up in your favourite chair with your favourite story on a digital reader? I couldn't.
Can you give a disk containing a story for a digital reader as a present to someone, I wouldn't do that, it has no 'body' (plus you can't write a special message in the book for the receiver from the giver)

Just my 2p on this.

Hi Marcus

That's one hell of a proper 'job-description' you posted.
No surprises for 'the boss' (i.e. your clients)

Hi my friend.

Oh, canoeing. Once spend a very leisure/active 14 days doing that in the most wonderful weather accompanied by 10 strangers (only for on day, turned out to be a great international group: Dutch, Germans and Swedish) in Varmland Sweden.

And with my partner (then not in 'the picture' ;-)) during our holiday in British Columbia, very good 'sport' indeed.

Where've you been canoeing? anywhere nice?

You want me to teach you Dutch by any change?

I've got three blogs, al for different reasons, all with other 'call-for-actions'.
Our FAQ blog on Wood You Like Natural Wooden Flooring (our business in Kent UK) informs our customers about all things related to wooden flooring and 'calls' for them to ask their specific questions (problems with/on/about flooring they encounter).
My Kiss2 blog is about kepping business simple and 'calls' for conversations about these issues, sharing of experiences with other business people.
My new blog (pondering) is personal, 'calls' for reading, smiling, recognising same experiences. Is brand new (created this week) and I'll wait and see what will happen to it.

Have a good week next week,everyone; last week had been a topper! (for me ;-))

Hi Marcus

Thanks for the link and you've turned my 'wondering about' into a interesting post.

As 'amateur' webdesigner I had a great 'mentor' in webdesign and content. This great guy (I called him the real web-wizard) always insisted on one thing with everything you do on your website: importance of functionality and consistency in the lay-out of every page, making sure your visitor knows to find his/her way around the site (and when you have a real shop also his/her away eventually to that real place). Learned a lot from him.