The best advice I never had....

I, like most people of my generation, was brought up to believe you found a good job and, if you were lucky, you gained promotion as you worked , then retired and lived happily! That was then but this is now, and it is said that most people starting today will have at least five jobs in their lifetime! So how can we prepare ourselves to cope with this?

I was in Education for twenty years and then through circumstances had to change completely and begin life at the bottom in the corporate world. It was learn and develop or go under; I learned that skills are transferable and if you are flexible and willing to adapt there is every chance that you will survive!  However it is not always easy but nothing worth having is and if you are willing to take a risk the rewards justify the means.

I worked initially as an Intern then as a Consultant and stayed four years and during this time I set up my own company One4OneConsultants Ltd. Working on the principle that I would rather work for myself and make my own mistakes than work for someone else and be blamed for theirs! I moved on to work as a Consultant for a High Street bank before branching out totally on my own in 2004. I had learned a great deal and was to be given some advice that was to guide all my future dealings, namely, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, but rather, if you can, have three income streams.

I have followed this maxim in various ways ever since; there have been failures and successes but the good thing with three income streams is that if one fails you have another two that keep you going whilst you search for a replacement. So how does this work in reality for me at the moment?

I have my initial business, One4One Consultants, specialising in training and development; I work with a partner on another Business, School Dynamics, developing Inspirational programmes for Schools and Colleges and lastly I have my Investment Business Karatbars. Each of these provides me with an income stream and in the case of Karatbars, financial security, which is the goal for which I have been striving.

One other model that has governed my life of late is from Jim Rohn; for every £1 you earn, 70p goes towards living, 10p goes into a savings account, 10p is invested and 10p is given to charity. What a great way to live and a great way to keep out of debt!

I wish you every success in all you do!

Malcolm Watson

StevenageLocalBusiness

Using Social media to create traffic...

Social Media and Creating Traffic

Social Signals are Important

Are you looking to create more traffic to your website? Then you need to understand that the internet has become social and ‘social signals’ is very important to get your message out to all the social networks and create more traffic for your website or blog.

Here are some social networks you should join as a start and place your share buttons on your blog or website. So you and your visitors can share your content this is very powerful. This will increase your traffic overnight this is called Social Signals. Google loves people talking about your website it’s like shinning a spot light where the action is and Google will pay more attention to your website or Blog if you have lots of social signals.

Social Media Action Plan

1.      Create a Facebook Fan page for your website or blog.

2.      Join Google+ and create your Authorship Mark up profile this is very important to setup as this gives you authority as the author of your content and shows a picture of who you are. When people search for certain key words and they find your listing with your picture. The probability of someone visiting your Blog is much higher than some listing with no photo.

3.      Google loves Authorship as its stops people spamming and Google will rank your pages better in the search results.

4.      Pinterest is a great way to share photo’s on the internet and is linked to your Blog or website and can be a great way to add traffic.

5.      Twitter is also a great way to share your blog post to your followers and in turn they can re-tweet your post to their followers and this can bring loads of new visitors to your website.

6.      StumbleUpon is a great way to share your Blog posts and to use key words and target a category of people who you want to engage with.

7.      LinkedIn is a great professional network to share your blog posts with that can add value to your followers and readers.

It’s all about Content marketing

Today Google has got very strict with regards to people trying to cheat the system and get higher rankings in Google. If you are doing something that is not common sense then you might get into trouble with Google and your website could get banned and not be ranked at all.

When creating content it must flow like you are writing as normal and not stuff too many key wards into your articles or blog posts. A good rule of thumb is to use 2% of your key words in relation to how many words you write. As an example if you have a 500 word article then 2% would be 10 keys words that you can use in your content.

Do not copy other peoples content as this will also be penalised. Be creative and write good original content that can add value to people. Create good headlines with your keywords. Plus use clear bright pictures and use your Key Words in your Alt Text but remember the 2% rule includes key words in pictures.

Thanks,

David Ingham

About the Author David Ingham

Owner of http://www.workfromhomecareer.net

I am an online enthusiast, Project Manager and family man helping people create Financial Freedom and earn a Full Time Internet Income. Hence my Blog Work From Home Career, I live in the UK and I love life, rugby, running, snowboarding and Triathlon’s.