small business, social media marketing and life from the bottom up…

Do you ever get ideas for a startup that you would like to create?

You know, the kind of inspirational strike where the mind starts racing and you can’t seem to write your thoughts down fast  enough.

Man, I love that initial phase.

However, if you are like me, then comes the next stage where you return to reality and deal with self limiting thoughts and the fear of  failure. Typical negativity might include:

• How can I possibly get this monstrous idea off the ground?
• I don’t have the time and maybe I’ll get to it in six months.
• People who launch successful startups are all well connected and live in Palo Alto, New York, or Washington D.C. (Not saying that’s the case it’s just one of my crazy recurring, negative thoughts.)

I’ve recently gone through the first two stages (euphoria and fear) and at present I am moving on to hopefully making my latest startup dream a reality.

If you are in the fear stage, or dealing with thoughts of self doubt, read this article in the NY Times, For Web’s New Wave, Sharing Details Is the Point, which mentions that Blippy recently secured $11 million from venture capitalists.

Nothing against Blippy at all, but if they can get funded and off the ground, then so can YOU and I!

Goals

Do you know how to take your startup idea out of the thought & 
dream phase and into the viable action plan, tangible goal, and launch stage?

Neither do I, really.

However, most recently I’ve been thinking a lot about small business and the social media space. Specifically, how the whole experience can be improved for busy small business owners as the field progresses over the next 10 to 20 years.

And my recent startup thoughts have centered around creating a venture that focuses solely on developing applications which can help small business owners with social media.

The sticky point, I’ve never launched a for profit online startup venture (we did Train for Humanity but that was non profit) before and have lots of questions. Pretty much, I need to know everything from seeking funding to hiring programmers.

I don’t know how far I am going to get with my latest entrepreneurial idea but I plan to detail all of my steps here. During the next week, my immediate goal will be to contact some already successful startup folks and to seek their input. With their permission, when I have their advice I will post it here.

My other goals for the coming few weeks are:

1. Create a loose business plan.
2. Register domain name(s).
3. Continue to post helpful small business articles here and at ProBlogger to grow my audience.
4. Consciously take everything one day at a time, but also to try to make small 
   steps everyday towards the completion of this project.

Some questions for you:

• When you are thinking about launching a company or new project, what are your first steps?
• How do you find programmers?
• When you are seeking funding do you just go with a concept or do you need a prototype?
• What is the best way to approach potential investors?
• Do you have any resources that you would recommend I check out or people I should talk to?

Please let me know your thoughts below.

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In my ongoing small business series over at ProBlogger, Darren just posted my latest offering - 9 Critical Tasks Before Launching Your Small Business Blog.

Here’s a preview:

Are you getting ready to launch your baby? You know, your small business blog.

Blogging for small business is certainly not revolutionary anymore, and it has been well documented that it can improve your search engine rankings, increase your brand awareness, and ultimately bring you more customers.

You can read the rest of the post here.And please share it with other small business owners.

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Do you like to tell the story of your small business using pictures? Are you a fan of FLICKR?

My friend Coop (@StephenCooper), who’s a personal trainer in California, emailed me the other day to see if I had any tips on the best practices for small business owners when uploading pictures to FLICKR.

Without question, when it comes to creating a social media footprint, I have to say that FLICKR is one of my favorite sites for increasing small business visibility on the web. But, there are some general guidelines that I follow and I would like to share them with you today.

1. Start with keywords. If you’re trying to rank for various words or phrases that are unique to your niche, then you should always start your photo uploads with a quick search using Google Keyword tool (or whichever keyword tool you prefer).

For this post, I am going to pretend that I want to rank well for a phrase that uses the keyword “Caribbean.”

And after analyzing the query results against my ranking goals, I have decided that I should try to increase my web visibility for the phrase “Caribbean honeymoon.”

Wow! Lucky for me, I just had a honeymoon couple leave, and before they left they shared an amazing sunset photo with me. So we’ll use that picture as the basis for this post.

2. Uploading the photo. If you haven’t done so already, I strongly suggest that you change your default FLICKR account to reflect your business brand. The name of my business is the Palmetto Guesthouse so I have the following as my FLICKR account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/palmettoculebra/. You should note that “Palmetto” is my business and “Culebra” is the number one searched term in my niche. Now lets upload!

If you look at the graphic above, the picture I’ve chosen to upload does not have a very appropriate title, but don’t worry, we are going to change that. Additionally, I am going to keep the picture public so when search engines crawl the FLICKR site my photo will not be limited.

3. Describing your upload. Once your photo has been uploaded, you will then be prompted to provide tags, a title, and a description. DO NOT gloss over this section, or hurriedly add some non-descript information. Here is where the search engine optimization power comes from FLICKR. Think about the keywords for your small business and where you are hoping to gain visibility.

For my example photo below, in the tags and title box I entered the words that I am looking to rank for, and I also included them in the description.

4. Final result. Once you hit the “save” button your photo will now appear in your FLICKR stream. Note the title and tags with keywords, as well as the thorough description.

A few final thoughts.

• You can brand your photos and improve your visibility even more by photoshopping your website or blog’s URL onto the picture (you can also add your logo).
• If you want people to be able to use your picture for their own use (with attribution), remember to include the Creative Commons license.
• Make sure you use your FLICKR photos in your small business blog.

As with all successful internet publishing, consistency matters! I try to upload a couple of well tagged, described, and titled photos every week.

Do you have any other tips to add? Have you had success using FLICKR for your small business web presence?

Want more small business social media tips? Then please subscribe to my RSS or email feed and let’s connect on Twitter @mark_hayward.

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Ultimately this is a personal decision. But let me ask you a couple of questions:

1. Would you hire *YOU*? (If yes, what would you charge for a seminar, etc?)

2. Is your product or service helping to shape someone’s life or the way they do business?

3. Who is your ideal customer? Have you earned the right to charge them?

When I go into my local pizza place on Saturday night I know that I am NOT leaving with a free pizza. Sure, I can go in, chat with the bartender about the latest island happenings and gossip, and perhaps even get a free drink or appetizer (without spending a penny).

But, never a free pizza.

Why should your information or product be any different than that pizza?

(Note: Thanks to my friend @jonathanfields for making me think with this post, Guru Fatigue: Getting Paid Without Being The Wizard.)

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Do you have certain dreams and goals that you are going after?

Today, I thought that I would give you a little insight into my backstory with a look at how I went from the cube to the Caribbean.

To be sure, my story about searching for personal freedom might be a little different than most as I now live in the Caribbean and I am currently trying to develop my web presence from here.

But, whatever your small business, social media, or web worker dreams are, this story should hopefully resonate with many readers because I am truly “everyman.”

I do not come from money and have done every possible job from working as a waiter, landscaper, and warehouse worker to presenting technical data and policy to high-level government officials.

My goal to live in the Caribbean is most likely quite analogous to *your* situation, whatever your objective might be – starting your own business, telecommuting a couple of days a week, or traveling the globe, and most likely my journey was not too much different from what many experience.

The Beginning of the Journey

Strangely enough, my journey out of the corporate world actually began when I was about fifteen (I turn 42 this year) and I don’t think I even knew what a cubicle was back then.

During my second year of high school I had the chance to go to Hawaii with a friend and his family. To this day, I can still remember stepping off the United Airlines plane and having my feet touch the sand and soil of the tropics for the very first time.

Certainly, my life would never be the same.

While I was in Hawaii I witnessed a completely different way of life and I soon realized that there was way more to living than snow and cold.

Additionally, the trip actually ignited my entrepreneurial spirit because from the time I returned, and for many months thereafter, I started drawing design ideas for a lifestyle and beach themed t-shirt line that I wanted to start (to help support my new beach life).

The Middle Part of the Journey

As my aspirations and priorities shifted over the years my desire to live in the Caribbean never wavered. Even when I tried to follow the norm, and began down the career track in a few corporations, I quickly realized that corporate mentality (at least in the offices that I experienced) was killing me.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some great companies to work for, I just never had the opportunity to work for them.

I guess this turned out to be a positive thing because all of the office scenarios that I experienced provided the initial catalyst and impetus to keep pushing forward toward my objective.

During the times of uncertainty and speculation about how I would actually make a living in the Caribbean, I always felt that preparation (e.g. acquiring unique technical skills) was the key if I was going to have success.

These days, I am quite certain that many established web workers could probably pick up tomorrow and go travel the world, or start their own practices without much of a negative effect on their income generation potential.

In addition to the above-mentioned preparation, I feel that the following key ingredients allowed for my successful journey:

• A general disdain for petty office politics.
• Careful preparation and research.
• A willingness to take risks and stepping stone positions.
• Networking with a wide variety of people.
• Serving in the Peace Corps.
• A strong desire to be an entrepreneur.
• An unwavering focus on my final goal.

So how did you get there?

Preparation

From my story, it appears as though my preparation phase was quite long, and indeed the idea had been planted early. To make matters more difficult, a good majority of my research work was done pre-blog era. Meaning, there weren’t great resources around like Escape From Cubicle Nation, Location Independent, and The Art of Non-Conformity to help dispel myths about how to take control of your life and pursue an existence that would allow you to work and be free at the same time.

I think that preparation can be the most arduous and frustrating of steps to success because you will not necessarily derive any tangible results, especially in the beginning. But, if you stick it out, you might just find a golden opportunity, or at the very least come across a “stepping stone position.”

Stepping Stone Positions

When my wife and I determined that we did indeed want to live in the Caribbean it was then time to find work that would help us to get there. After undertaking our initial preparation and determining that we could not quite fill our financial needs in the Caribbean just yet, we decided to seek various positions elsewhere that would help get us to our final goal.

These are what I like to call “stepping stone positions.” Furthermore, this type of employment is great for freelancers who don’t necessarily want to stay in one place or need to gain some experience before they can finally settle in their desired destination.

Our stepping stone positions had us working in Papua New Guinea, American Samoa, Tortola, and even briefly back at home in Massachusetts. However, we always tried to keep in mind that as long as we were heading in the right direction (i.e. towards the Caribbean) all of our jobs had value.

Also, I have found that pursuing new opportunities typically has a snowball effect and will generally lead to more employment prospects and enhanced chances to participate in new projects.

Focusing on the final goal

One key point that I have taken away from my experience is that unless you are really lucky, tremendously gifted, or possess a technical skill that really is rare, success does not come overnight.

Even forgoing my initial Caribbean dream as a fifteen year old, my journey to the Caribbean took approximately ten years.

A long-term focus will serve you well.

My nine tips based on my experience of going from the cube to the Caribbean are:

1. Maintain your focus.
2. Be prepared – make yourself the best candidate for every situation.
3. Take some sabbaticals or extended research trips to various destinations.
4. Don’t be afraid to utilize stepping stone positions.
5. Take risks.
6. Network effectively (do this early and often).
7. Control your destiny.
8. Deal with failure and setbacks and move on.
9. Remember to have fun and enjoy the complete experience.

I once read, “You can’t learn how to play if you don’t get off the sidelines and get into the game.”

Whatever you would like to pursue – a new job, home based employment, overseas travel, or just to telecommute one day a week, you REALLY can do it! Now go get in the game.

Did you enjoy this post? Please consider grabbing my RSS FEED or following me on Twitter @mark_hayward.

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Do you ever wonder how other small business owners create their blog posts and what is the specific method behind their madness?

I’ve been so preoccupied lately trying to create compelling small business social media content for ProBlogger that I realized I hadn’t updated my own small business blog in a couple of weeks. Not wanting to risk undoing the social media footprint work that I’ve undertaken, or slipping from the front page of Google for particular keywords (see screengrab below), I decided it was time to get some fresh content posted.

I like to think of my small business blog posts as one part creative endeavor and one part research experiment. For my latest post I decided to get back to the basics, and at its core, small business blogging (for me) is about three main goals:

1. Providing value
2. Ranking well
3. Subtly promoting the business.

Additionally, because I own a tourism related business I get a ton of questions emailed to me on a weekly basis, so this post also had to serve as a resource where I could point potential guests.

My Small Business Blog Method

1. Keywords - I typically use the Google Keyword Tool to see what terms, related to my niche, people have been searching for lately.

I read through the list of suggested phrases and words, but ultimately I scrolled down to the Additional Keywords to Consider section. That’s where I saw “Culebra Beach” with a monthly global search volume of 12, 100.

2. Title – With my key term secured, I needed to come up with a title that was relevant, grabbed attention and included the keywords “Culebra” & “Beach.” After some brainstorming I decided on, “Ultimate Culebra Beach Information Guide.” Granted it sounds a bit awkward, but it gets the keywords in and lets the reader know that this guide is a resource post.

3. Content creation - with keywords searched and titles crafted it was now time to search my photo archive and draft the content for the post.

Within the post I decided to include eight of the most popular beaches on Culebra, which I have written about before and could then link back to the archives.

4. Post SEO – when I draft small business blog posts I am concerned with SEO, but ultimately I am most concerned with obtaining greater search engine visibility (SEV). However, I do always try to customize the title (I shortened the actual title), add proper tags & categories, and include an excerpt.

Wordpress gives you amazing flexibility to customize many SEO centric items before you publish your post. If you are like me, then you too are always in a rush to hit the “Publish” button to get the post live. But, if you can hold off for a few more minutes to proofread and take care of the SEO minutiae to ensure that you really are getting the most value for the time you have invested.

5. Publish – with all of the above steps completed, I then hit the publish button! And here is the final result: Ultimate Culebra Beach Information Guide

6. Promotion - I don’t really do any promotion of my small business blog. But for the sake of this article I sent the following Tweet to show how you might want to go about it.

That’s it. That is the method I typically use and exactly how I went about drafting my latest small business blog post.

How about you - do you run keyword searches when you draft your small business blog posts, customize titles, and complete proper SEO? What is your method?

Want more must read small business social media tips? Then please consider grabbing my RSS FEED or following me on Twitter @mark_hayward.

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Does not have to be difficult!

Before the end of today, ask yourself a few simple questions:

• Where do my customers come from?
• What search terms are my customers using?
• Where do they hang out online?
• How can I provide value to their online communities?
• What is the best method for engaging with my customers online (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc)?

That’s it.

Next, you need to create a plan of action and stick with it consistently. Not for a week, or a month, but more like six months to a year. Your social media plan can be as complex as you like. Or, it can be as simple as mine, which is used as an example below:

Monday – draft and publish a helpful article to your small business blog. (Remember, fresh content keeps you on the front page of Google.)

Tuesday – upload three to five photos to FLICKR. Make sure they are well tagged and have a complete description.

Wednesday – shoot one to two minutes worth of video (I use an iPhone) and upload it YouTube. Again, if you do not properly describe and tag your video you will be losing out on the primary search engine visibility benefits.

Thursday – catch up on social media blogs to stay current. If you need suggestions see this post, or go straight to ProBlogger, Chris Brogan, CopyBlogger, or Duct Tape Marketing.

Friday – check customer review sites to see if you have any reviews. Respond professionally to anything negative and send a personal *thank you* to any customers that have posted a positive missive.

Note, on a daily basis you should be doing a quick visit to relevant forums, scanning Twitter and checking your custom Twitter searches, and interacting on Facebook.

If you have any questions or need further clarification on how any of the above is done, please let me know in the comments. Also, would love to see your social media goals and plan below.

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What would you do right now, if you got sick? Would you get in your car and drive to your doctor? Or, would you go straight to the hospital?

What if that wasn’t an option?

From 1997 – 1999 I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the remote Lakekamu Basin located  in Papua New Guinea and that is where I came face to face with the reality that is malaria.

While serving as a volunteer I tragically witnessed many people die from various illnesses that afflict developing countries  such as, diarrhea, pneumonia, and malnutrition. In fact, for most in my village, illness was just an accepted part of the daily struggle.

However, it was an incident with malaria that occurred during the final night in my village, that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

During my last night as volunteer, as my wife and I were packing our things and saying goodbye to friends, we could hear moaning and horrific screams coming from the little bush hut that acted as an aid station.

We stopped packing and went to investigate further.

Upon our arrival we witnessed a young friend of ours, the little girl above, convulsing and fighting through the final stages of cerebral malaria. There was nothing we could do to help.

I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so hopeless as we watched her pass.

That incident, and the image of her struggling and fighting dementia, has been indelibly burned into my mind.

Why did she die from cerebral malaria?

The answer: simply because the proper medication was not available in our village.

Although the village medic was trying to get her to swallow the pill form of quinine, due to her advanced state of dementia, it was impossible. And he later told me that if he had the injectable form of quinine that he could have possibly save her life.

Tragically, the death of this young woman taught me an unfortunate life lesson. Who will live and who will die, to a large extent, comes down to access:

• access to mosquito nets.
• access to anti-malarial medicine.
• access to educational materials.

Malaria & Social Media

Recently, while on Twitter, I noticed some Tweets in my stream regarding the United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria and their Social Media Envoy Group. (Read the full story here.)

The Malaria Social Media Envoy group is chartered with inspiring and activating social media audiences throughout the year in support of malaria control. The Social Media Envoys are dedicated to utilizing their social profile to keep online and offline media audiences focused on the movement, milestones and resources required to achieve the Secretary-General’s goal of providing all endemic African countries with malaria control interventions by the end of 2010.

Specifically, their hope is to have universal mosquito netting coverage by the end of 2010 and to eliminate malaria by the end of 2010.

As you might expect, the initiative has signed on some social media powerhouses (including: Jeff Pulver, Biz Stone, and Alyssa_Milano), each of whom have massive online followings and real life networks.

How I think social media help.

Absolutely no doubt, the social media players will provide a tremendous boost to this initiative. I believe in social media. My business would not have survived without it and I believe in what the people who are on the envoy are trying to do. With respect to those in the group, who I’ve been fortunate to interact with, I know they are tremendously gifted individuals.

But, I think the golden support is going to come from the little guys like you and me.

Individually we probably can’t stamp out this absolutely horrific disease. Joined together I have NO doubt that through social media, and by improving access, we can put an end to malaria.

Certainly, I have a tiny Twitter following, not many blog subscribers, and live on a miniscule island in the Caribbean. Likewise, you might not have a large follower base either, however, once we start combining our collective networks the 100 followers here and the 200 blog subscribers there REALLY begin to add up.

I realize that we’re all working like mad and are busy focusing on the reality that is ‘our lives’.

As such, sometimes we forget what millions of people around the world are going through and struggling with on a daily basis. We forget that people are getting sick simply because they don’t have the access that we have.

Most importantly, we forget that WE can make a difference.

In the coming months, if you see a Tweet or a read blog post about the Malaria Envoy group, perhaps you can take a minute to RT the Tweet along and share the post amongst your network.

As a final thought, imagine how monumental it would be if malaria was eradicated by the end of 2010 and I could just delete this post…

Thank you for reading.

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Darren just posted my latest contribution to the ProBlogger community called 30 Valuable Lessons Learned Using Social Media for Small Business.

If you’re struggling with social media then hopefully some of the knowledge that I have gained during the past couple of years can help you. I’d also love to hear your input or other suggestions you might add to the list.

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