Blog posts covering Knowledge, Motivation and Productivity | Get Lasting Results with Mike

What you Need to Achieve Your Goals

I use this model of analysis to help me achieve my goals by formulating a clear actionable plan

#1- Goal Setting

What do I want to do/achieve?
Do I know clearly enough what my goal is?

If I don’t know clearly, it will be hard to work out a plan. You must have a defined goal so that a plan can lead to its attainment. It’s ok if that goal moves along the journey, but have a goal before you make a start.

#2- Current Cause and Effect

What am I doing currently?
What is happening/not happening?
Why is it happening/not happening?

There should be a clear cause and effect to follow. Do this and this will happen. If not then clarify the plan further if possible.

#3- Remedial action

What can I do to correct?
What am I missing/not knowing which is important?
What am I not doing that I need to do?

Now that I’ve laid out the structure of the model, let’s have a closer look at this model of analysis in more detail:

Goal

What do you want to do/achieve?
Do you know clearly enough?

knowing what you want to achieve (having a goal) is crucial to developing an actionable plan to make it happen, but think about it in enough detail so that a plan to achieve it is crystal clear. Check out the example below for more clarity about what I mean.

Lets assume your goal is to make more money. There are a number of ways to look at this, what most people mean when they say they want more money is have more money in their pocket after they have paid the bills.

Now this can be achieved two ways, by making more money (increase in income) or saving money they pay out for bills etc.

Saving money is often easier to do then earning more, so we’ll cover this first. Now there are those essential things we have to pay, like rent / mortgage and utilities, which you can’t avoid but which you could look to reduce the cost of, by shopping around for cheaper suppliers, lower tariffs etc. It’s not exciting but it can really put extra money in your pocket if you take the time out to shop around.

For other costs/expenses, try to cut out the ones that are none essential, and that don’t add some enjoyment or value to your life. That’s the criteria I use for expenses.

Is it essential?
Is it adding value to my life?

If the answer is no to both of these questions, get rid of it. If you have debts like loans etc, pay these off as a matter of priority, don’t fail to pay them back, because this is both morally wrong and can affect your credit rating in the future. If you’ve done the crime do the time, so to speak. Just don’t be in a hurry replacing this debt with more debt in the future.

Imagine if you had no bills to pay and every pay cheque that came through the door was yours to keep and enjoy. When people earn more money they tend to take on more debt, they buy a bigger house and nicer car etc. All this does is keep you having to grind away to pay these things off. Once you have the nice car or nice house do you really feel happier? Really? If they do make you happier, then while they are none essentials they are adding value/enjoyment to your life, which is fine.

Earning more money on the other hand is dependent on the skills and knowledge you possess. Learning new higher-paying-skills, working more hours, and /or earning extra income on the side will help you earn more. There is no magic bullet here. Have a plan and work the plan based on your preferences, skill base and motivation levels.

So having the goal of simply “earning more money” isn’t going to be clear enough. By digging deeper into what this involves, will help you work out what options are open to you.

If you don’t know clearly enough, you will have difficulty working out a plan to attain it. Clearly defined goals make the plan easier to formulate and follow through to conclusion.

Current cause and effect

What are you doing currently?
What is happening/not happening?
Why is it happening/not happening?

There should be a clear cause and effect to follow. If I do this… this will happen. If not then clarify the plan further. There are never any guarantees, there is an element of risk to whatever you do, but progress on a best guess basis.

Look at what you’re doing now to achieve your plan. We are looking for a clear cause and effect. You do X and Y happens. Working backwards can sometimes help with each stage. So for instance, if you want to save money, but you’re not currently doing so, then, look to see if you are taking the necessary actions that will lead to this goal being realised, because it’s not going to happen otherwise.

You have to make it happen. Have you looked at what you’re paying for bills? Have you shopped around for cheaper alternatives? Action is key here. Doing what needs to be done to achieve the goal.

Remedial action

What should you do to correct?
What are you missing/not knowing which is important?
What are you not doing that you need to do?

Use something like the decision matrix to determine amongst alternative options, problem solving techniques to work out a way are around obstacles. Use role models to see if you are missing something, look at the models, systems, habits and relationships they use to achieve what you want to achieve.

Summary

This article is designed to make you think with more clarity about your goals and plan of action so that you can formulate and take actionable steps to make it happen. Empowering yourself to find the solutions you are looking for, rather than feeling you have no control about how things turn out.

It’s true that sometimes things don’t work out how you wanted them to, but I have found that having a goal, and a clear actionable plan to achieve it will move you in the right direction. Being flexible in your journey is fine, as long as you know the end destination.. A crystal clear goal makes the plan easier to formulate.

Having a goal of “Making more money” can involve earning extra income or having more money in your pocket at the end of the month by saving. If what you mean is actually having more money in your pocket at the end of the month, then this suddenly opens up extra options including saving on expenses. Be clear what you mean and by do so you find the options open up to you more clearly.

Hope you find this article informative and thought provoking. Please share if you did, thanks.

Master the Fear of Change and Open the Door to Possibilities

The Fear of Change is really the fear of a possible future devaluation in our “sense of self” otherwise known as the “Ego”. It’s the fear of the unknown and sense of uncertainty about the future and what dangers that future might hold for us.

The only way to make things better than they are at present, is to make a change – change the way we think and how we do certain things. Failing to change, often results in stagnation and a sense of getting left behind, because everything around us is constantly changing whether we like it or not.

We falsely think that keeping the status quo is the safest thing to do because it’s familiar and we know we can cope with things as they are “Better the devil you know” as the saying goes. This is an illusion. Change is the only reality, so embrace it and be excited by all the possibilities that exist because of it.

The negative things we fear aren’t real, they are only imagined. We can’t deal with future threats, because they are mind projections, which we play, rather like a movie, over and over. We simulate these experiences as if they were real. We feel the sense of danger, our bodies feel the stress as if the experience was actually happening to us. It’s important to know the difference between the bear in your mind that is going to eat you and the actual bear in real life that is going to eat you. Our mind will always gravitate to the “worst case scenario”, because it’s designed to keep us alive. But many modern day situations are not life or death.

Ask yourself “What is really the worst that could happen if things don’t work out, will you die?” How many times have you dreaded a future event, only to find the reality was far less scary than you thought it would be?

I embrace change, I find it exciting. It is the only way to live in our modern world. Doors will open for you, while others may close but the journey is what life is about, not the destination. So enjoy the ride. Open your heart, open your mind. Jim Carey said it best. “Open the door in your mind and when the door opens in real life just walk through it”.

For more information regarding motivation, check out our motivational guide.

Thought of the Day Quotes (more thoughts here)

“If you insist on holding onto EXPECTATIONS, then expect the future to bring CHANGE, and you won’t be disappointed.”

“CHANGE brings with it OPPORTUNITIES, stop focusing on the RISKS and look for the CHANCES.”

“Why we resist change – CHANGE = UNCERTAINTY = RISK = LOSS. In reality it also provides OPPORTUNITY. But we fear LOSS more than we value gain. So we focus on that.”

Change Quotes

“There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love. There’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.” – Dr Wayne Dyer

“Nothing changes if nothing changes”.

Get Results: nothing changes if nothing changes

“When you reach a fork in the road, TAKE IT.” – Yogi Berra

Get Results: when you come to a fork in the road, take it

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” – Dr Wayne Dyer

Get Results: change the way you look at things

“The only way to make sense out of CHANGE is to plunge into it, move with it and join the dance.” – Alan Watts

“We can have more than we’ve got, because we can become more than we are.” – Jim Rohn

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading”. – Lao Tzu

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance”. – Alan Watts

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”- John F. Kennedy

“The key to change, is to let go of fear.” – Rosanne Cash

“Strive for progress not perfection.”

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” –George Bernard Shaw

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” –Frederick Douglass

“Goals seem impossible only when you are not heading toward them.” – Mike Hawkins

“Everyday is a second chance.”

“If you don’t take risks, you will always work for someone who does.”

“Your life does not get better by chance it gets better by change.”

“I already know what giving up feels like. I want to see what happens if I don’t.”

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

“Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must, just never give up.”

“You create your own reality.”

“The distance between dreams and reality is action.”

“You create your own reality.”

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” – Tim Notke.

“Dont make excuses, make improvements.” – tyra banks

“Are your excuses more important than your dreams?”

“Make things happen.” – getresults.org.uk

“Decide – commit – succeed.”

“If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.”

“Let’s not regret what we did not do, rather everyday is an opportunity to do the things we will never regret.”

Understanding Business Models

Get Results: business model graphic — Get Results: Business model

A business model is an abstract view of a company’s commercial activities: how it generates revenue by providing value to its customers, how it converts that revenue into profit and handles its costs.

MIT Business Model Archetype

When I first started to think about business models I came across this model developed by MIT which provides a good foundation for a systematic study of business models, by defining business models and distinguishing their different types. Their model consisting of two elements:

(a) what the business does, and

(b) how the business makes money doing these things.

It uses two fundamental dimensions of what a business does. The first dimension—what types of rights are being sold—giving rise to four basic business models: Creator, Distributor, Landlord, and Broker. The second dimension—what type of assets are involved—distinguishes among four important asset types: physical, financial, intangible, and human.

Get more information (takes you to mit pdf) it is a great basis to start from ….

Another Approach

Another business model, which takes a different approach, by looking inside a business, at the relationship it has with its customers, in terms of transaction frequency (either once only or recurring), or revenue contribution (being small or large)

There are four types of business models here.

Customer group A – once-only transaction, small contribution purchasers.
Customer group B – are large contribution, but once-only purchasers.
Customer group C – provide small contribution, via frequent transactions
Customer group D – provide large contribution, via frequent transaction.

It doesn’t matter if the business is traditional (brick and mortar) or Internet-based. It makes no difference if the business sells a product or service. The size of the business doesn’t matter, either. The only difference between a small business and a large one is the number of business models contained within the enterprises.

Transaction Frequency: Some customers /customer groups provide “recurring” revenues. Their business repeats from period-to-period. Other customers may be, in contrast, one time purchasers.
Contribution to Total Revenues: Some customers contribute only a tiny portion of the total annual revenue. In contrast, others contribute a substantial slice. You might find that other customers are a mix of the two. providing small individual contributions but, over the year, they might account for a significant portion of total annual revenue.

To illustrate this, in my photography business, we provide products that require return visits, such as our baby packages, were newborns are brought back 3 times throughout their first year, to complete their package. Some of these customers may not spend as much per visit, but overall our average sales per customer (not transaction) are higher than most of our one-off sessions. These customers fall into either group C or D.

Otherwise most other photography customers come in maybe once every couple of years, if at all again (group A or B).

In contrast our nurseries and school clients use us twice a year every year, but average sales per transaction tend to be much less than our studio customers (falling into group C) but if you group these individual customers collectively per school (as they are taken on mass in one day) then they move into group D .

This business model offers a different dimension of analysis than the first (MIT model) but both are equally as valid, depending on your requirements.

Business Model Generation

I love the book “Business Model Generation” which is a great resource for anyone looking to further understand the construction of business models. The slideshare presentation below outlines the main points, you can purchase the book below. Please note this is an affiliate link and if you click through and purchase I will earn a commission, but this is not why I am providing a link here, I am doing so because I genuinely believe it is a good source of information on the subject of business models. If you do click through, I would like to thank you for your support of the site via its affiliates, it helps us provide free information on the site.

The book goes into depth on how to analyse you business into segments,

key Partners
key Activities
key Resources
Cost Stucture
Offer
Customer Relationships
Customer Segments
Channels
Revenue Streams

Each of these help to make up the “business model canvas”, which is a great framework for formulating a comprehensive model. I would highly recommend it.

What Is A Business Model from Alexander Osterwalder

The Secret To Success They Don’t Want You To Know

When we are small children, we learn by copying others. And if you have children of your own, or are ever around them, you know they tend to copy whatever you do.

Sometimes it’s cute, sometimes it can be embarrassing.

Throughout mankind’s history, most “learning” has come from copying.

For instance, if you want to learn a trade, you need to work with a skilled and qualified trades-person and be their apprentice, slowly learning the ins and outs under their close supervision.

NLP modeling works on the same principle of finding someone that is expert in what you want to do, and then copying them. You have to copy everything they do, not just their actions but their thought processes, and reasoning.

Obviously, the more complicated the skills required, the more difficult it is to copy them.

One crucial aspect of learning is the need to make mistakes, and to learn from them going forward, because no matter who you are modeling, they can’t have achieved any level of success without a significant amount of trial and error. Or as they say in NLP, “Trial and Feedback.”

Unfortunately, many people like to be told exactly what to do in the hope it will relieve them from making any mistakes.

“I’m ready for success! I’m ready to take action! Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it!”

But they discover the “secret” is to simply keep trying until they get it right, unfortunately most people don’t like this idea so much.

Sure, modeling can help. It can speed-up the process. But being willing to accept any “result” no matter how “good” or “bad” is required for any kind of real success to take place.

This may be the reason why most people are always looking for the next “big secret.”

They would rather wait their entire lives for somebody to tell them what to do, and guide them step-by-step, rather than simply taking action and seeing what happens.

Sure, it can be terrifying taking action. But it is also incredibly liberating. As you’ve likely realized from time to time, most of our deepest fears never actually materialise.

So when you do “wing it” just to “see what happens,” it’s rarely even close to what you feared could happen, and each time you try something, and accept whatever happens as valuable feedback, you will learn something.

Sure, often times you’ll learn what not to do, but this creates a foundation to build on and allows you to learn from your experience and at a much deeper psychological level.

Equally important is the deep knowledge that trying and “failing” isn’t so bad.

It can actually be kind of fun, as long as you have a clear idea of where you’d like to be eventually, and the persistence to keep going no matter what, you’ll not only get there, but have a lot of fun in the meantime.

Make a start today…

Do Your Purchases Align With Your Goal?

Get Results: experiences rather than possessions

Whilst developing a model for getting results in selling and sales, I found myself wondering about what people currently tend to spend their hard earned money on. I wanted to know if we tended to spend money on particular types of things over others and if they aligned with their long term goals. It led me to thinking about what similarities and differences existed in our spending habits. I came to the following conclusions.

As human beings we find ourselves trading our most valuable resource, time, in the pursuit of money, so that we can trade it for things we need or want. There seems to me to be only three broad types of spending that we undertake, they are…

Spending to “Consume“
Spending to (exclusively) “Use“
Spending to “Accumulate” (gain more money or wealth)

Spending to “Consume”

Spending to consume covers things we buy that are consumed in the process of using them. They are only used once, and then they are gone. Consumable purchases are frequently experiential in nature, but not always, and include things like food, and drink, and holidaying. Once they are consumed, they are gone.

We may spend our money in a fancy restaurant, buy a take-away or prepare a meal ourselves at home, and for slightly differing reasons. In a restaurant, our priority may be to enjoy the food, but additionally we want to take-in the ambience and enjoy the company we share it with. It becomes more of an experience than just eating in, and as a result we pay more for it, and are usually happy to do so.

Holiday’s also fall under this category along with everyday things like paying for petrol, electricity, gas, ink or toner for a printer, phone call minutes, insurance, and fares, such as flight or bus and train charges. Gifts also falls under this category, we buy it once and after the enjoyment of giving it to the recipient, the value to us, has been used up, we can’t give it to them twice.

Spending to (exclusively) “Use”

We spend to exclusively use many things, these are things we pay for and then use over and over until they are damaged, wear out or are superseded. Things in this category include the clothes we wear, the furniture we furnish our homes with, even the house we live in, and the car that sits on the driveway. There is generally more longevity to these purchases and on the surface probably offer more value for money. I earlier stated that holidays fall under the “purchase to consume” category, but buying a holiday home, would come under the “spending to use” category, because once purchased it can be used again and again.

You can buy things that appreciate in value like a home, or jewellery or art, or that depreciate in value such as clothes and vehicles.

If we lack the finances to purchase the item outright we can choose to rent or lease many big ticket items, such as cars or houses.

Spending to “Accumulate”

Spending to accumulate covers things like investment purchases which are aimed to make more money. Stocks and shares, property you flip or rent out are included in this category. If you run a business than marketing falls under this category as well as asset purchases. Other things may include websites, businesses, land, property, art, jewellery, precious metals, limited editions, and antiques that are bought to make money from.

Some of these items may also come under other categories. For instance jewellery can be purchased to use yourself and as an investment to sell on at a profit when you have finished with it. Your home also can be used in this way. So some purchases are not mutually exclusive to just one category.

If I look at many of the things I spend my money on I see this….

Mortgage – accumulate
Utilities – consume
Digital TV -consume
Phone – consume
Car use – consume
Insurance- consume
Food and drink include – consume
Holidays – consume
Clothes – use
Furniture – use
Home improvements – use
Studio Rent – comes under all categories, use (rental cost) consume (use the facilities over and over) accumulate (for business)
Cinema concerts – consume
Gifts – consume
Interest payments on loan’s allow you to enjoy the use of something or consume something or accumulate a return, so comes attached to the thing you buy with the money you borrow. If I was to put the actual interest payment under one of the above categories I would opt to put in under consume category, because you can only use it once, and then you pay again.

Having formulated these categories, I wondered which type of purchase offered the best value for money, which led me to ask the following question…

Are experiences better than having possessions?

Experiential purchases largely fall under the first category “Spending to “Consume”, where possessions tend to fall under the “spending to use” category.

Research seems to suggest that experiences are better than possessions for our well-being. although this runs against popular advice. We are taught that buying appreciating assets will make us wealthier because they will be worth more in the future than we paid for them (purchase to accumulate category). Whereas we will have nothing to show from spending to consume. But if we look at it in a different way, at the end of our lives will we look back and value the experiences we enjoyed or the possessions we used?

Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades says…

“Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods. You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences.”

“We consume experiences directly with other people,” says Gilovich. “And after they’re gone, they’re part of the stories that we tell to one another.”

A few popular quotes on the subject are…

“Fill your life with experiences, not things, Have stories to tell, not stuff to show.”

“collect memories, not things.”

“The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the riches life experiences.”

I couldn’t find any quotes that made the claim that having possession was better than having experiences, but I guess it is a subjective judgement for individuals to make.

So what’s the point in using these categories?

Well, I think it’s useful to use these categorise so that we can see the underlying value we derive from our spending habits and see if they align with our wider, longer term goals. We spend a good portion of our lives trying to earn money, so that we can buy the things we want to buy. but do we take any time out to really think about what we are actually buying and why? If you find you’re spending more of your money on consumable purchases, whilst trying to accumulate wealth, are your spending habits helping in the attainment of your wealth seeking goal? not really. In this example you would be much more successful adopting a “spending to accumulate” strategy. Okay, you still have to buy food and drink to survive, but instead of buying those concert tickets, maybe you should move that money into the “accumulation” category of spending.

If your long term goal is to enjoy the great experiences of life, as the research suggests, things like going on holiday or experiencing new things, and new people then some form of experiential purchase may be the way to go, and just something to think about here, many experiences, like enjoying the beauty of nature, don’t have to cost you anything, they are freely available for all, you just have to take the time out and be present and appreciative enough to enjoy them.

I hope using these categories will give you a different perspective to view your purchasing habits from, and allow you to take a more critical view of them.

Remember the most precious resource we have is time, you should ensure it is utilised well, and for a worthy enough purpose. Trading time for money is a must for most of us, so make sure you don’t fritter away your dosh on things that are not really worth the time you invested in earning it.

Using keyword Research within your Online Marketing Strategy

What is Keyword Research

Keyword research can be used in a couple of different contexts, the first would be by a business owner or niche website owner, looking to improve visibility on the internet, so that they appear higher up in search results of popular search engines such as Google and Bing.

If you are such as business owner, this would involve finding out what your target market is typing into the major search engines to find the products, services or information that you provide.

Once you have these keywords you can use them to optimise your website so that you show up in those very same search results. When I say “optimise your website” I’m talking about writing articles that are centred around those keywords, as well as adding the keywords to your page title, and description tags.

The second context in which you can use keyword research is when you’re looking to start a website from scratch and want to monetise it with adverts such as Google Adwords (where you are paid if someone clicks on an advert on your website). This can be compared to ‘panning for gold’ where you sieve out all the dirt and soil (poor quality keywords) until you are left with little gold nuggets (money keywords).

The golden rules for gold nugget keywords are:

#1 Relevance – keywords relating to niche to attract ‘targeted traffic’

#2 Traffic – high traffic volume is best to ensure there is sufficient potential custom.

#3 Competition – low competition is best but not too low as this might be evidence of there not being much of a market.

#4 Commerciality – is the measure of high value keywords.

Keyword research can be done in Google Adwords for free, by simply signing up for an account, alternatively there are a number of software solutions available that will do more in-depth analysis of potential keywords such as Market Samurai which I have also used myself in the past.

#1 Relevance

Relevance is important if you’re a business owner and have particular products to sell or already have a website in a particular niche. It is about finding keywords that will attract ‘targeted traffic’ This is traffic that is going to be interested in your offering, and who are likely to buy from you or click on the ads on your site.

If you’re using Pay Per Click (PPC) such as Google Adwords, where you’re paying to drive traffic to your site then Keyword research is vital to make sure you’re not spending money on unnecessary clicks. For example If your selling ‘dog collars’ then you will want to remove keywords such as ‘training’ for instance, because these searchers are not looking to buy dog collars at this time. You can set such keywords as negative keywords in Google Adwords so that when someone types in this negative keyword your advert will not show, and you won’t be charged for an inappropriate click.

You will definitely want to include the word ‘dog’ as a keyword rather than something like “pet”, otherwise you might find “cat” searches are included in the results. Using long tail keywords can help qualify searches. for instance ‘buy dog collars’ is likely to qualify potential purchasers rather more than ‘dog collars’ would.

tip – Go to amazon.com and type in your keyword, look at books section (relating to your niche), and look at the table of contents, and check some of key terms and add the interesting ones, and do further searches of these ‘semantic’ keywords. This tactic can be used for writing articles and also to find what subjects would be popular to include on your website.

If you fall under the second context of keyword researcher (described above) than relevance doesn’t matter as much because you don’t have a particular product offering. Whatever you make the website about, Google Adwords will match the advert content to your content. In this circumstance you want to make sure you are targeting niches and keywords that have a higher value, see #4 commerciality below for more information about this.

#2 Traffic

It is important to know the difference between “total searches” which are cited in most of the keyword research platforms and the volume of traffic you are likely to actually get on your website should you rank on the first page of the Google SERP results. Below is a table showing the typical breakdown for traffic that is likely in each of the 10 listings on the first page of Google

95-98% of traffic come from 1^st page of Google
Even if you are #1 you won’t get all the traffic

Google position	% clicks	Traffic per 1000	Incremental Improvement in clicks %
1	42%	420	254%
2	12%	120	40%
3	8%	80	39%
4	6%	60	24%
5	5%	50	20%
6	4%	40
7	3%	30

#3 Competition

There are two important measures when looking at the competition for a particular keyword phrase the first is the amount of competition. Ideally look for a lower amount of Google searches ideally less than 30,000 search results for any particular keyword phrase, you can check this by going to www.Google.com and typing in your keyword to see the amount of searches found.

Secondly consider the strength of competition. It’s best to avoid competing with professional websites, that have been around a long time, and that are highly optimised for the particular keyword phrase you are targeting. Also avoid competitor websites that have lots of webpages and a lot of backlinks pointing to them. If the first page on Google or Bing is mainly made up of these kinds of sites you are unlikely to be able to outrank them, so it is better to avoid these competitive keywords phrases altogether. Of course you have little option if you have a particular product offering and these keywords are the ones used by your target market, in this circumstance, where you are unlikely to get a first page listing you may consider PPC (pay per click) advertising to get a first page presence.

#4 Commerciality

The commerciality of a keyword is how much a particular keyword is worth. Google Adwords is a bidding system for keywords and is based on supply and demand. The more demand for a particular keyword the higher the cost per click (CPC) for that keyword. This is a good indicator of how much money is being made on a particular keyword. If an advertiser is paying $10 per click for a keyword it is likely that they are making more than that from their website sales, otherwise they wouldn’t be willing to pay that to Google to drive traffic to their site.

So when your conducting any keyword research keep in mind these golden rules and your more likely to find those golden nuggets.

Check out market Samurai’s explanations below of each of the golden rules. Useful information even if you aren’t considering using their software.

Relevance

Traffic

Competition

Commericality

Promotion

Track your Ranking

Market Samurai is a great tool which saves you valuable time and helps give you a greater insight into your keyword selection.

Alternative you can use a free service provided by Google called Google Keyword Planner. You need to sign up for an account to access this online tool, but it’s a great resource. However, it’s not as good as Market Samarai in terms of depth and insight. In fact, MS uses your Google Keyword planner account to access much of the data needed but is much better at organising it for analysis.

…. hope you found this article useful.

While you’re here, check out my marketing guide.

Interesting Content From Across The Internet

Featured

This video from Uplift talks about dealing with your inner world to improve your outer world, after all your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. Self awareness is a very powerful skill to develop.

Understand The Cycle of Behaviour

The model above illustrates how improving the quality of our lives, starts with our thoughts.

THOUGHTS shape our ACTIONS

ACTIONS shape our EXPERIENCES

EXPERIENCES shape our THOUGHTS

Don’t take my word for it, think about your own experiences. What are the thoughts you have, the beliefs and values you hold? Where do they come from? They come from your experiences of life, through what you see and hear, how people and life treats you. Your upbringing, your relationships etc.

These experiences depend on your actions. The things you say, and do. Your impact on the people and world around you. What shapes your actions?

Your thoughts, the things you think about. The things that matter to you. Your beliefs values, opinions…. and so the cycle continues.

Let’s look at a couple of examples to illustrate the process.

If someone is extremely rude to you (experience), you may feel angry and this will influence your feelings and emotions (thoughts), you may keep playing the event over and over in your mind, fuelling the feeling of anger (thoughts). If this anger is intense you may display it in your behaviour (actions). You may snap at your nearest and dearest, who snaps back causing an argument (experience), further fuelling anger (thoughts), and so the cycle continues, unless something breaks it.

Let’s look at another example. Let’s imagine you have been cheated on by your ex-lover (experience), who you really cared about. You are still upset and distrustful of the opposite sex as a result (thoughts) even though a few months have passed since it happened, you are then asked out by someone else, but you turn them down, because you are not yet ready and still somewhat distrustful of the opposite sex (action), the person doesn’t approach you again, in fact avoids you like the plague in future (experience), yet they may have been the love of your life for all you know. You are failing to move on because of what’s going on in your head (thoughts), thoughts that relate to someone else, and nothing to do with the person that asked you out. Now it might be a good idea not to jump from one relationship straight into another, it is probably sensible, for a while at least, but on the other hand you might be craving a relationship (thoughts), but are fearful of committing again (actions) to someone in case you get hurt again. This means you stay single (experience) and miserable (thoughts). This cycle then becomes problematic, and unless you make the necessary changes to your thoughts, you are going to impact your experience of relationships going forward.

Think about the areas of your life you are struggling with. Go through the thoughts you have about them, the actions that result from your thoughts, and the experiences that are a consequence of your actions.

How do you break the cycle? You either move out of thought, out of your Ego, your mind, whatever you want to call it and rise into the spiritual plane. If you don’t buy into spirituality, then concentrate on addressing your thoughts, examine why you think what you do. Where your values, beliefs, thoughts, opinions and the like, come from and if they really make sense for you and your goal(s). Make positive changes to your thoughts and the rest will follow.

If your EXPERIENCES aren’t what you want, look at your ACTIONS and try to identify what you need to be doing to create the EXPERIENCES you’re wishing for. Then once you’ve identified these, go back and check that your THOUGHTS (beliefs and values etc) are aligned in such a way as to motivate those necessary ACTIONS.

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The Truth about Calories

Get Results: scales of calorie intake and burn

Calories are units of energy, we are using the term for the purpose of this article to describe the amount of energy that we either consume in the food that we eat or burn off as we go about our daily routines. They are generally measured in kilocalories (Kcal), which are made up of 1000 small calories otherwise known as gram calories. check out a full explanation of what a calorie is on Wikipedia

It is important to maintain an healthy weight and we do this by maintaining a balance between the calories we eat and the calories we burn, in other words we need to consume only as many calories as we use up, and no more.

Consuming more calories that we burn off results in weight gain, consuming less calories than we burn off means we loose weight, but is dangerous long term because continually consuming less calories than we need will result in illness, and even death.

The difficulty we all struggle with is accurately knowing how many calories are contained in the food we eat and how many calories we are burning as we go about our lives, so that we can determine a good balance between the two.

Consuming Calories

The Food industry uses average values to determine what calories are contained in our food, these are:

4 calories per gram of fat
4 calories per gram of carbohydrates
9 calories per gram of protein

Most processed foods contain nutritional information on the packaging regarding the contents of the food we buy and this gives us a better idea of what we are consuming. Below is a list of common foods and their calorie content to help you determine for yourself what is calorie dense and what is not. If you divide the calories figure by the serving size gram figure you will get the calories per gram figure which makes comparing much easier.

Food	Serving size	Calories	Calories per g
Jacket potato	180g	245	1.3
Salad	100g	19	0.19
Chips	100g	253	2.53
Chicken salad sandwich	1 pack/195g	257	1.3
Garlic bread (low fat)	84g	94	1.12
Chicken tikka	150g	232	1.5
Naan bread	1/2 piece	269	na
Banana	150g	143	0.95
Grapes	50g	30	0.6
Big Mac	215g	492	2.3
Cheeseburger from Macdonalds	141g	379	2.7
Milk (semi skimmed)	30ml/1 fl oz	96	3.2
Cheddar cheese	40g	172	4.3
Eggs size 3	57g	84	1.5
Coffee	1 cup/220ml	15.4	0.07
Can of coke	330ml	139	0.4
Tea	1 mug/270 ml	29	0.1
Yoghurt strawberry	1 pot /200g	123	0.6
Cheese and onion crisps	1 bag /35g	184	5.3
Mars bar	65g	294	4.5
kit kat	2 finger bar / 21g	106	5.0
Chicken breast	200g	342	1.7
kabab	168g	429	2.5
Pork chops	1 oz /28g	73	2.6
Doughnut	49g	140	2.8
Pint of beer	1 pint (568ml)	182	0.3
Wine	1 glass/120ml	87	0.7
Vodka 40% alcohol	25 ml	55	2.2

I don’t think there are many surprises from these figures, fruit and vegetables contain less calories, diary products are very calorie dense as are meats and chocolates. I was initially a little shocked at the difference between beer and vodka, but soon realised that most of a pint of beer is water in reality, where vodka is much less diluted.

Burning Calories

We burn calories even if we lay in bed all day. This is our basal metabolic rate and are the calories we burn just to keep our bodily functions and organs going. You can work out your basal metabolic rate here.

So we have our basal metabolic rate as a starting point, then any movement, whether walking, doing house work, going to the gym, walking etc adds to the amount of calories that we burn.

We burn 60-90 calories per hour while resting, which is at one end of the spectrum, and upto 20 calories per minute doing intense exercise at the other end, with all other activities somewhere between these two.

Another factor which impacts the rate in which calories are burned, includes the size of a person, the bigger you are the more calories you will burn. Men tend to burn more calories than women do.

Striking a balance between calories in and calories out

Mind Games

Our minds can play tricks on us with regards to how hungry we feel. During an experiment conducted by the BBC who wanted to see how the labelling and presentation of food would affect how people would feel after consuming it. They separated twins into two groups one group was presented with a drink which was labelled as an indulgent drink containing 900 calories per bottle and was labelled to reflect this. The second group was presented with an healthy drink containing just 200 calories and labelled accordingly. The drink was in fact the same in both groups.

The results showed that when they thought it was an healthy/low calorie option they tended to feel hungry quicker, compared to when it was considered an indulgent, high calorie option. The findings suggested that our minds affect how we interpret physical feelings of hunger.

Substituting high calories with lower calorie options

One way of lowering our calorie intake is by replacing high calorie foods with lower calorie substitutes. This can be a more palatable option than simply cutting down on the amount we eat or simply cutting out certain high calorie meals altogether. For instance if you’re making bangers and mash use double cream instead of butter, use parsnips and swedes to replace some of the potato.

Other tactics

If you’re making Steak and chips, shake the oils from the chips more vigorously, lower the portion size of the chips (portion control), cook the steak for less time which makes the steak harder to digest and thus uses more calories during the digestive process.

We only absorb half of the calories from foods rich in fibre, the rest passes through our system, undigested.

Feeling fuller for longer

Some fibre absorbs water in our stomach, and this helps make us feel fuller for longer. Protein also makes you feel fuller for longer. Consume more liquid type foods such as soups which tend to make us feel fuller. Drink more water, this also aids the feeling of being full.

The bottom line to weight loss is to burn more and eat less calories, how you go about this is entirely up to you, it’s about making lots of little changes in diet and activity levels so you can tip the balance in your favour.

Check out our Ultimate Weight loss guide below for more tips on losing those extra pounds.

Forming Attachments: How Easy To Be Manipulated

Get Results: cognitive attachment map graphic

I went for a walk earlier today, it’s something I do 4-5 times a week, and have done so for most of the last 12 months. I go walking around a flash locally known as Amberswood. It’s a lovely walk, and I enjoy my time surrounded by nature. I have become accustomed to seeing a family of swans living on the water. I have seen the cygnets growing up, and I must admit it has added a great deal of pleasure to my walk to see the family each day.

For the last couple of days however I have noticed the swans have been missing and the flash seems somewhat empty without them. There are still ducks on the water, but it doesn’t seem the same without the family of swans being there. I am assuming they have migrated for the winter,

I suddenly realised that I had formed an attachment to the swans without even realising it, and am now missing them being around, resulting in a feeling of sadness. This got me to thinking about how we humans form attachments which can often go on to develop into deeper emotional relationships. I came to the conclusion that if something is #1 – a regular part of our lives and #2- it adds some pleasure to it, then we are inclined to form an attachment to that thing.

I don’t think that an attachment would form with either of these elements missing.

I guess this is how brands try to embed themselves into our lives. They appear to us regularly through marketing campaigns, and attempt to provide a positive contribution to our existence. How else would you explain the longevity of brands such as Heinz, Kellogg’s, Cadbury’s and the like and how we have a great fondness for them, and seek them out when shopping.

These kinds of attachments don’t usually develop into anything emotionally deeper than a fondness, but they do form as attachments in the same way as deeper relationships would have started out. An attachment is an attachment whether it be to a person, a thing, an idea, an affiliation, or a family of swans. The difference lies in the strength of that attachment and how deeply it embeds into our sense of self, over time.

Lesson Learned

The lesson to learn from this realisation is to be wary of wolves in sheep’s clothing trying to manipulate their way into our hearts. Make sure your attachments are worthy of your feelings.

#1- Goal Setting

#2- Current Cause and Effect

#3- Remedial action

Goal

Current cause and effect

Remedial action

Summary

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Thought of the Day Quotes (more thoughts here)

Change Quotes

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MIT Business Model Archetype

Another Approach

Business Model Generation

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Spending to “Consume”

Spending to (exclusively) “Use”

Spending to “Accumulate”

Are experiences better than having possessions?

So what’s the point in using these categories?

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What is Keyword Research

#1 Relevance

#2 Traffic

#3 Competition

#4 Commerciality

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Featured

Archive

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Consuming Calories

Burning Calories

Striking a balance between calories in and calories out

Mind Games

Substituting high calories with lower calorie options

Other tactics

Feeling fuller for longer

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Lesson Learned

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