Self Improvement For Self Employment

[tweetmeme] Thanks to top bloggers’ advice and many thoughtful comments from helpful readers I’m officially introducing a new blog topic at Get In the Hot Spot.

This self improvement blog is now covering self employment too, but the main focus is still how to live your dream. The self employment topic will mostly cover Internet marketing and sales for small business.

I think covering these two topics in one blog works because many of us dream of the freedom that comes from being self employed. Most of us want to work from home, or wherever we are in the world, so that we can have a flexible lifestyle that allows us to develop our career and also enjoy other passions like parenting or travel.

Knowing how to make the most of the Internet is vital if you want to experience the freedom self employment offers. These days all of us should be able to express ourselves and sell ourselves on the Internet. Your web presence may be the shop window for your products or services but more importantly it’s also the first introduction to you as a person, your ideas, how you present yourself and the way you choose to live your life.

I’m really excited because Internet marketing and web design is a topic I love and am also qualifed to write about. I graduated with an MA in Design for Interactive Media in 1996 and have been self employed running my own successful web design company from home since then.

Slogan Change?

I’ve been thinking of changing my slogan to “Self Improvement for the Self Employed” but my clever friend Robin Dickinson, who’s a veritable font of knowledge, ideas and postivity, suggested self empowerment to me which sounds much more appealing so I might use that. I think Live Your Dream still fits with what I want to help readers with but it sounds rather hippyish and new age too me when the advice I give is concrete and solid.

I like the slogans Simple Success, Simple Empowerment or Total Empowerment. Or is Live Your Dream still the favourite? There’s lots of thinking needed and your feedback is very welcome.

New Post Schedule

I’m going to start updating this blog more often and posting new articles twice a week on Mondays/Tuesdays and Thursdays/Fridays depending on where you are in the world.

The loose plan is Mondays/Tuesdays for self improvement and Thursdays/Fridays for Internet marketing. But sometimes that may change and I also plan to write about travel from time to time as that’s another topic that interests all of us.

I’m excited about this but also terrified. It doesn’t seem like a big change but I spend a lot of time writing, editing and formatting my posts so this doubles my work. It’s ambitious but I want to do it because I’m keen to get my knowledge about Internet marketing and small business marketing out there.

I see business owners making costly and time-consuming mistakes on their websites daily. I want to save my readers from making the common mistakes and teach them the essential information they need to feel confident in their online marketing and how they behave on the Internet. I want to help more people make the Internet work for them.

To do that I need to commit to my schedule and fit the writing in come what may. I will also be running my web design and copywriting business, servicing clients there, raising my three primary school kids and running the household. Fortunately, I’ve spent years working out how to eliminate drudgery from my life and perfecting that. What I need to practice now is eliminating distractions.

Just to make things more interesting I’ll also be jetting off to Sydney for a day and Shanghai for four days so out of action for about six days in May. But I’m determined not to let that interfere with the grand blogging plans I made before Coca Cola decided to whisk me off to World Expo in China because they like the positive tone of my writing. Confused? So am I but you can find out everything I know about the Coca Cola chronicles here. I’ll be keeping you updated on Coca Cola, their Live Positively initiative and my jaunt to Shanghai as well.

So now I will be extra busy as I want to make sure all my posts are ready written and set up so they will post automatically while I’m away in case I can’t get on the Internet. My lovely husband will be in charge of that so your reading shouldn’t be interrupted.

No Techie Stuff Ever

By the way, just in case you’re worried I promise you it isn’t going to turn into a geek fest round here. I personally have little interest in or knowledge of technical jargon, computer programing, electronic gadgets or WordPress plug-ins.

What makes the Internet great is the people who read it and I’m writing for the average Internet user. Someone who does what they need to do to get by, knows they have gaps in their knowledge that could be filled and wants to succeed online without knowing the inner workings of computer programming.

As always my main aims are to make sure this blog is:

  • Fast to read;
  • Relevant to your goals;
  • Actionable;
  • Uplifting and Inspiring.

Coming Soon

I’ve been planning topics to cover for you. Of course I reserve the right to change them at any notice – the titles will definitely change and the topics might too if something exciting, inspiring or urgent crops up. But I want to give you a taste of what you can expect here so you can look forward to it and tell your friends about it too.

I’m not short of ideas for things to write about to help you live your dream. I keep a list of post ideas and there are over 100 ideas on there (really!) so my main problem is deciding which ideas are gold dust that needs to be posted and spread as soon as possible. I spent an evening sorting out the most important ideas and dividing them losely between my two main topics and my third topic of travel. The topics are all dear to me and I can’t wait to share them with you.

There are 3 aims to posting this schedule:

1. To get me to commit to the new schedule and focus on it.
2. To make me commit to pushing myself to write more and also add videos rather than just wanting to.
3. To give readers an idea of what to expect and get feedback on if this is what you want to read.

Get In the Hot Spot 10 Week Editorial Calendar

April – Fri 16th – The big plan

Tues 19 – How to plan and make a timeline

Fri 23 – How to make a wish

Tues 26 – Learn something new everyday

Fri 30 – An Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon

May – Tues 4 – Blogging your passion and launch of GITHS store with one recommended product to get you started

Fri 7 – Is self-employment for you?

Tues 11 – Lessons learned in a 5 year old dance class

Fri 14 – Blog networking secrets

Tues 18 – Deal with change or life transitions

Fri 21 – How to be ruthlessly focused on your goals

Tues 25 – The best things our parents did for us

Fri 28 – Desktop stretching video< June: Tues 1 – How to fulfill your destiny

Fri 4 – My employment history and lessons learned

Tues 8 – How to be positive and have more fun

Fri 11 – Introduction of the Country Series where I discuss the pros and cons of and share stories about life in countries l’ve lived in like France, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Laos, Zimbabwe and maybe even the UK. Episode 1: Australia with a Noosa video.

Tues 15 – On not fitting in

Fri 18 – Why blog content is not king

Tues 22 – Sponsorship letter

Fri 25 – Me being interviewed by Oprah

Now’s your chance to tell me what interests you most and least. If a topic seems popular I can try to bump it up the schedule so you can read it sooner and if there’s a topic everyone thinks is boring, overdone or pointless I can bump it off the list.

Don’t be shy now. Remember if you want to get what you want in life you have to speak up and ask for it.

As you see next week I’m going to write about how to plan so if you want to make a totally crazy plan for yourself like this one you can.

Thanks for reading. Please subscribe.

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I’d love it if you take a moment to use the hand tool below to add this to Stumble, Digg or Delicous because that will help me get more readers. Thank you again.

Happy Birthday Mr. Candy

This week I also want to thank my clever husband (pictured above) who’s in charge of tweaking this site, fiddling with widgets, installing plug-ins and stuff like that. It’s his birthday today (April 16th) and a day when all non-geeks thank clever computer boffins like him who actually know how to make the Internet work. It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it and as long as it’s not me I’m grateful. Happy birthday Rich!

Handsome Man On Beach Confession

In case you wonder about the photo caption, handsome man on beach, that’s purely for the search engines. It’s childish but it tickles me pink to think that if someone types “handsome man on beach” into the search engines (and trust me, people do) they find a picture of our very own Rich Candy aka the Mucho man. I hope they enjoy it as much as I do:)

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>> Live Your Dream In a Material World

>> 5 Secrets For Avoiding an Average Life

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17 Comments

  1. QwkDrw April 16, 2010 at 3:08 pm - Reply

    Researched and written articles that post automatically timed by a preplanned multi-week editorial calendar — sounds solid.

    Will you be blogging from the World Expo in China

    ??

  2. Annabel Candy April 16, 2010 at 4:29 pm - Reply

    QwkDrw – Scary isn’t it:) Normally I have a list of posts but then I write what I feel like most. So trying to be more logical now. I won’t be able to blog in real time from China due to time and Internet restirctions so you’ll have to wait for updates until I get back. I’ll tell you all about it then – and probably have to bump something off the schedule if it’s a long one:)

  3. Eduard @ People Skills Decoded April 16, 2010 at 7:45 pm - Reply

    Self Improvement For Self Employment is a good slogan in my view. It will narrow down your target audience a bit, but it’s more specific and clear to understand. I suppose it depends if you’re going for quantity or quality. Both of which I think are absolutely OK.

  4. Jarrod@ Optimistic Journey April 17, 2010 at 10:39 am - Reply

    I commend you for expanding your niche to include self employment. I think that there is a whole market within the self improvement niche who are looking into self employment and wanting to learn more. Kudos!!

  5. Annabel Candy April 17, 2010 at 1:56 pm - Reply

    Eduard – Cheers, I think it’s quite snappy too. Either Self Improvement For Self Employment or Self Improvement For the Self Employed… Am I narrowing the niche or broadening it? I’m not sure but time will tell:)

    Jarrod – I hope so. Thanks!

  6. Isao April 17, 2010 at 8:22 pm - Reply

    Great Annabel! I am interested too in self-employment, and I have been reading about the yin and yang of being self-employed for a few years.
    I’ll be straightforward – most of the stuff they say has been repeated for 100 times. But I keep reading some of them, because they reveal part of their lives – mistakes and success alike – along with the prettier but formal “advice”, which I sometimes ignore (sorry but I cannot help).
    What I want to read is something that comes from a writer’s bones and heart, not from her skin and head; then I can easily let her words sink inside me. Even the trivial “keep writing” sounds real. In turn, I can generate an emotional reaction inside me which leads me to a new action, writing, or whatever.

    The best scenario is when what starts as reading ends up in doing. Good luck on your passage, I will be following up, and happy birthday for your husband!

  7. Annabel Candy April 17, 2010 at 9:38 pm - Reply

    Isao – I love “the yin and yang of being self-employed”, it would make an excellent slogan. What you say sounds wonderful. I think for me it is about being confident enough to write from the heart and for the readers it may be about trusting or having bonded with a writer enough to read whatever they write, even if it’s more personal. I do want to share some stories with you. It’s been a long journey for me and when I set up my Web design business in 1998 many prospective clients didn’t even know what a website was!

    I’ve sent your wishes to Rich, thank you! Let me know if there’s anything specific I can help you with:)

  8. Ching Teoh April 19, 2010 at 12:02 pm - Reply

    Hi Annabel, I’m so happy to know that you’ll be blogging twice a week now! Yeah .. can’t wait to read more.

    And, though it is really late for a birthday greetings, but still my warmest greetings to the handsome man on the beach, Happy Birthday Rich!

    And, I love the idea of the SEO .. ‘handsome men on the beach” :)

  9. Annabel Candy April 19, 2010 at 12:27 pm - Reply

    Ching – Thank you from Rich, I told him. He’s looking very handsome on the sofa right now :) Yes, I’m excited about writing here more often too. If I only post once a week that’s only 52 posts a year and there’s so much inormation I want to get out there it would take me decades to cover it all at that rate!

  10. Live Richly April 19, 2010 at 2:38 pm - Reply

    I am very interested in all your travel insights so I look forward to those! :)

  11. Annabel Candy April 19, 2010 at 4:50 pm - Reply

    Live Richly – Thanks for the feedback! Travel’s what I want to write most but couldn’t as it seems to be off topic. Thank heavens for people like you who’ve requested it. I can’t wait. I’ve got some pretty nutty stories to tell.

  12. […] the plan will help me get more done than if I was blogging freestyle. I’ve already created an editorial calendar so I know what topics I’ll be writing about here until […]

  13. Kate April 22, 2010 at 1:51 am - Reply

    I love your new goals! It’s impressive (and slightly intimidating) how organized you are about all of this. Your blog is so helpful for me as a new blogger.

    And what’s this about Oprah? Are you serious?

    I just noticed that you’ve lived in Costa Rica. What part? I went there recently and met some fascinating people.

    • Annabel Candy April 22, 2010 at 8:32 am - Reply

      Kate – Thanks for reading all of that, even my editorial calendar:) Yes, the Oprah interview is something I’ve been looking forward to but since Oprah doesn’t seem to be coming to the party (to be fair she probably doesn’t know she’s been invited… I haven’t sent an invitation) I’m going to mock it up. It will be good practice for me when the real thing comes along. Lol. PS. He’s not bad is he?!

  14. Kate April 22, 2010 at 1:55 am - Reply

    Also, what a handsome husband! :)

  15. Michael April 23, 2010 at 3:28 am - Reply

    While it seems easy to change a slogan, after all they are just a bunch of letters typed on a screan, they do represent your brand and your image. Changing it is like pasting a moustach of a photo of yourself. If it is too sudden it shocks and surprises which is not your intent. You have a very ambitious schedule of articles and they will serve to shift the focus for you: and then maybe you can alter your slogan. I really like what you are writing about and adding self emploment ideas is a very logical move. I look forward to reading these posts.
    I was intrigued and delighted that you were chosen by Coca Cola to go on their trip. Have a great time.
    Cheers!

  16. Kate April 24, 2010 at 2:31 am - Reply

    @Annabel — Ha! She’ll be so jealous she isn’t invited…

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