Ping-O-Matic is a nifty little web based utility for keeping your blog in front of the search engines. I talk more about that and also provide a link to it on the resources page. The one thing about Ping-O-Matic is that you have to manually go to either the website and enter all your information or (if you were smart) to your bookmark each time you want to ping the search engines with your blog. That is, unless you create a scheduled task in Windows scheduler.
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If you have a website or blog and you want to get more people to your site–whether to win a popularity contest or generate revenue–then you should care about SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. People come to your site in one of three major ways; directly by supplying your link (url) on a business card or in an email, indirectly by your link appearing on another site, or from a Search Engine. Search engines play a significant role in how people find your site on the internet, and the higher your site ranks with the search engines, the more likely someone is to find you. Search engines play such a significant role on the internet in fact, that we now use the name of a very popular search engine as a verb when referring to searching on the internet…Google. So let’s talk about the evolution of search engines, the role they play in internet marketing and how that can affect you.
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If you’ve read some of my recent posts, you may have noticed that I believe in giving and receiving value. If you have a blog you may already realize this, but in case you don’t; you are offering value. It’s a big world all wrapped up in a big internet, and somewhere out there someone will like what you wrote because in some way they learned something, were entertained or related to their own experience. Once you’ve established that kind of relationship with someone, you’ve gained credibility with them. They will then be interested in what you have to offer from that point on.
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If I had a dollar for every time I heard a business owner talk about lowering their prices to get more business, I’d be a rich man. That’s a well-worn phrase, but then the situation is all too common. It is popular practice to see other businesses as competition, and to resort to big advertising expenses and/or price dropping to attract customers. Not only is this less effective than it seems, but it tells of a mindset based in poverty and lack. The results set the stage for ongoing struggle, while a simple shift in mindset could create a very different and rewarding experience. Let me tell you how.
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The topic of how to create a business is a many-faceted one. You will hear me talk about things like inspiration, talent, excitement and motivation when considering starting a business because I believe you will do best in a business that comes from your passion. I found this post on a blog called, ‘Shaboom‘ that puts the topic into different terms, and the message is valid for any business endeavor. The author, Molly Gordon, speaks in terms of the ‘source of your inspiration’, or ‘muse’, and how to create a business by serving your muse AND giving your clients what they want.
This is a very insightful article and I consider it required reading. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
~Orion
When I was first considering starting the Create your Business and You site, one of the driving forces was an idea I had about creating a video series that would regularly appear on the site. The idea for the site itself has been swimming around in my head for a long time, that being my desire to see more people create their own livelihood and supporting that with educational and inspiration information in a like-minded on-line community. What was really getting me jazzed, though, was the idea of using video as a primary medium for creating a series, or show.
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Fear is a basic emotion. So basic in fact, that many people dismiss it as a valid form of information. In my observations of some of the most successful people on this planet, it is clear to me that they have established what I like to call a ‘healthy relationship with fear’. At one time or another you may have heard of a business deal on the news or in the course of a conversation that involved a very clever, intuitive or ‘gutsy’ business move made by someone that left you wondering how anyone could be so brave, daring or even ‘stupid’! It’s not that these people have conquered fear, or learned how to ignore it–quite the contrary; they listen to it, learn from it, and move forward with sober decisions even though the fear may still be present. Well, maybe this doesn’t happen all the time….but mostly my goal here is to demonstrate how fear can be a useful business tool.
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“If you don’t like what your getting, change what you’re doing…”
These were the words I spoke to a friend while at a coffee shop a few years ago, and have spoken countless times since. I had never spoken these words, as such, before and yet they were the credo by which I had begun to live my life so many years ago when I quit the aerospace industry and moved to the country. I wanted a better quality-of-life and I did whatever I needed to make it happen. Little did I know that I had begun to walk the path of the entrepreneur.
Hello, and welcome to my blog! My name is Orion Lukasik and I created this blog as a meeting place for people ready to take charge of their lives, or that have already done so. The dictionary defines an entrepreneur as, “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise…”, which to me says, “a person who takes responsibility for their own life and doesn’t follow the masses.” Being an entrepreneur means you have chosen to call your own shots, to be self-employed, to create and manage your life the way you want to.
There are many websites and programs that talk about teaching you how to become your own boss; how to make money with a simple formula; or how to start your own business-in-a-box. What a lot of these programs don’t address, unfortunately, is that you are also making the choice to understand yourself more deeply than you ever have…and that can be a very daunting prospect to some! Indeed, personal growth is as important a part of becoming an entrepreneur as the business part is. So let’s say I take a holistic approach when talking about and teaching these subjects.
I live in the beautiful mountains of Durango, Colorado with my life partner Julie and I’ve been an entrepreneur for about 20 years now. I own a computer networking and wireless internet service provider (WISP) business under my company called ‘Aligned Technologies’, and I also belong to a handful of multi-level marketing (MLM) companies. My goal for myself is to create enough freedom in my life to be able to travel the world more and get involved in some humanitarian work…and I’m mostly there. This blog is my latest endeavor by which I hope to help others reach like-minded goals for themselves, and to attract accomplished entrepreneurs willing to share their stories and wisdom for others to learn by.
So I invite you–whether your spirit of entrepreneurship is a hunch, dream, goal, or full-blown reality–to engage here with others as we support each other in achieving the quality-of-life we desire. Participate in the conversations, and partake of the resources. Realize your dreams.
In life, love and success,
Orion Lukasik
