Much simpler to set up two accounts.

My business feed is mostly about ranking websites in Google and using social media in a profitable way. Although you still get the, “bought a new at today, matches my hat”, type posts on the business side, it’s mostly good info.

But I just wrote a note to my personal feed about hyper mediation making people beige. Which is something you are more likely to find in Media Communications degree essay I know, and I’m sure it leaves some of my Facebook F&F wondering WTF.

The point is, you don’t get to see people’s lives, you only see the hyper mediated version that has any sharper corners sanded down by a high voltage Bosch power tool. You tend not to get any juicy bits.

Hence the beige.

Also, I am noticing a reduction in Facebook action from “normal” people. By normal I mean those that do not have to be chained to the altar of QWERTY 16 hours a day. The trend may be different with the generation who are growing up with http grafted on to their sub-consciousness who in a few years will have iPhone screens surgically grafted into the palms of their hands.

And if we try to go towards the more fruity parts of Facecbook and social media, we soon find ourselves neck deep in a foul smelling brown fluid, that has a strange viscous quality.

Maybe it’s best to stick with the beige.

But I think, it’s more important to unhook from the stream of hyper mediated human consciousness and let the grass grow a little.

Recently I nuked all of the people I follow on Twitter. Which is 99.9% business and strangely enough it’s led me to be more connected and communicating more with people. I suppose it has forced people to email, which persuades people to be more detailed than the regular 140 chars.

Honestly, it is fascinating stuff picking at the threads. You do have to step back though to see some of the detail.

He said it was affecting his attention span and causing him to constantly check emails, even when in conversation with a group of friends.

I absolutely have had the same desire, although I am not addicted to my iPhone, I do have the constant distant thought that I am always connected, always being tracked. I’m also way too stingy to through away my very expensive communication device.

What I would miss most is my bar code reader which scans barcodes and then searches the Internet for the same product and compares pricing. It’s amazing the price differential these days and makes buying on the Internet a more likely thing.

There is of course the slow movement, who I’m sure would give a free hug to anyone throwing their smartphone in the bin. But I see such an act more as an art form, or a form of expression. Something to highlight the absurdity of smartphones and social media.

After all, we did get to the Moon and back without one.

Really good writing.

Is not about the writing at all, but how the reader perceives it.

Good writing does its thing without the reader knowing. It leaves the mind of the reader with a flavour, a taste of something. This is why information is best imparted using a story as a vehicle. Although it’s tricky to communicate the instructions of a Cannon EOS 7d using allegory.

If you are in the communication business it is beneficial to you to learn how to be a story teller. Not the Hemmingway way of story telling, which is more about the author trying to get laid (don’t most men write for this end?) but a story telling that is simple, basic and contextual to the life of the reader.

We write to be read, even if it is only the author which reads.

Writing is simply communication and all communication is underlaid with persuasion. Of course some communication is more heavy with persuasive techniques than others.

“Washes whiter than white”
“I love you, I really do.”

And so on.

Social media communication is no different, as we Tweet and Facebook we are tapping into the same lizard brain that has been with us for thousands of years. But most are not conscious of that, which is where the marketer can work a little magic.

And make a little money.

Below is an edited version of a quote by, Marianne Williamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Hmmm, that’s not right either.

Because link building has many aspects to it.

The thing is most link building and link builders seem to focus on easy to do stuff, like:

• Dropping a link in the blog comments
• Article marketing
• Social bookmarking
• Paid links

I know some people think dropping a link in the blog comment box has no effect because it’s a nofollow tag. When someone says that, make a note of their name and make sure when they tell you other stuff you put it through a filter as they are plainly wrong.

So let me get back to the link building is boring thing. The above techniques are dull and boring. It’s something that you get stuck into when you are a rookie, a noob, wet behind the ears, in short trousers etc. but after a while it becomes as if you are choking on a thick mixture of sulphur and porridge.

The section of link building that is not dull and boring and will have you skipping through the daisies on a balmy summers day is something that is a little bit more difficult to do.

It involves:

• Research
• Cultural knowledge
• Understanding of how people function
• A strategic vision of how the web is used
• An ability to manipulate people with words and images

It is of course content based link building or link building with magnetic content, or linkbaiting (I tend to think of linkbaiting as a subset of magnetic web content).

Magnetic web content is something which draws people to it. It’s function is to attract and persuade people to link. A specific skill set is needed to achieve this and most do not have it.

Most people do not realise that it’s really about where you head is at, which is defined by the life you have previously led. It can be taught, but most people fail, simply because they do not have the right attitude.

If you look at those bloggers who seem only to have to fart softly into a leather sofa and it gets them links, you will notice they all have a similar attitude. A certain way about them. This is the place in this article where I should reach for the Zen dictionary and make some pop reference to the Magnificent Seven. But my tea is getting cold and I want to drink it before I finish the post.

To sum up:

• When you first do link building you should do the boring stuff the first two years.
• Think you can be a linkbaiter? Take an honest look at yourself or enter your details into the linkbaitometer.
• Many are called but few are chosen.
• Follow your path and adopt the state of mind.

Now where did I put those biscuits?

I am only accepting 30 members and as I write this it’s already half way full.

Please don’t join if you are looking for a pleasent, tip toe through the daisies kind of place. If you are the kind who wakes at 3am wth an idea burning your brain and jump out of bed to blog it, then you are the kind of person we are looking for.

When I say don’t join if you don’t like hard work, it’s not a marketing trick. I really mean it, only the exceptional few can succeed.

***Update***

Linkbait Coaching is now closed.

But I will be releasing a low cost, building killer content course.

I know that I am more successful at a task when I focus. Concentrating like a laser beam on the task in hand increases the chances of completing the task. Probably more than any one thing.

If we want to improve our ability to complete tasks we must improve our focus.

What is it that causes a lack of focus?
Rarely is it the initial motivation. In fact the initial driving force behind your goal can sometimes blast through any lack focus if it is strong enough. But mostly, after a short period we get distracted, something else catches our eye, we feel we need to check out email, you know the drill.

For me the basis of distraction is the thought that there is still more possibilties for options out that. Even though I have decided on one task I have an irrational feeling to gather as much information as humanly possible. Coupled with the seemingly infinate knowledge base that is the Internet makes it an eternal distraction. I have to learn that when I gain enough knowledge to complete the task the research should be over.

What can you do to stop being distracted by infinate information fatigue?

I have to plug out. I take a piece of paper and a pen and sit away with from the computer and the Internet. I sometimes take the time to go to a Coffee bar and get a capuccino. Fermentation of current research needs to take place for the ideas to reach fruition.

I used to get distracted a lot from the computer games, if I could only get paid for playing Civilisation or Age of Empires. I solved that problem by simply de-installing them and hiding the CDs. Drastic action, but it has worked.

Be ruthless with your bookmarks.
Regularly go through your bookmarks and get rid of all high time suckage websites.

Place a time limit on your research time.
When developing an information project like a blog post or an ebook research can be never ending. Think how profitable the task is and create specific time slots to gather information.

Create your workspace
To work without disturbance gives you no chance to use it as an excuse not to work. Have you notice that after 15 mins of hard work you actually get into a mode of focused work that feels like you are a super hero and can achieve anything. This feeling is a result of the power of focus and it’s important to run whilst in this mode. Make sure when working on an important project you give the required quiet time you need.

Focus is the biggest problem facing knowledge workers today.
Distraction is the evil cousin of focus and should be negated

Here is what distracts me

• Browsing the internet.
• Reading E-books
• Check website stats
• Reading email
• Interacting on social network sites

When I research a blog post I find it difficult to stop collecting information. I find the more information I find the more information I have to find. Usually the first information is enough, but for some reason my brain is sending out the signal to search for more. This could be because I have not properly valued the initial information. If I took time away from the computer screen to mull the information I would be able to acess it more thoroughly.

And there is the rub. The computer and the internet have become the destination rather than a mere tool. It is such a huge and magnificent beast that most of us have not worked out how to tame it yet. At present I would say that this problem represents one of the biggest reasons why more people are not successful.

The saying is, “man who chases two rabbits catches none”.

So then you have to chose which rabbit to chase. If both rabbits go at the same speed and look the same, how do you chose. Which is what time management is all about, choosing which rabbit to chase.

You have to chose one, and chase it till you catch it. Everything else should be secondary to your choice.

When you work for yourself, like I do no one is looking over your shoulder and the beach is 15 mins away it needs a clarity and focus that you don’t need if you work for someone else. Which is why when a freelancer does get down to the work it tends to be more intense than a staffer.

You have to stare it in the face, not for one second back down. Lock your eyeballs and do not break the gaze, because you know as soon as you do it’s time to grab the boogie board and hit the surf.

Not that I surf, or have the boogie board, I am more likely to hit a coffee shop with a book and notebook, but it’s all the same effect. Work doesn’t get done.

You have to practice that hard stare, or at least I do. It feels much more natural and comfortable to follow that slow moving river into the sun. One hand trailing in the water and everything is right with the world.

But it’s not, work to be done, choices to be made.

Cutting down on the choices to be made sounds like a good thing.
Just like knowing exactly what I have to do when I sit down at the computer int he morning.

Thinking about time management and writing about time management – which is why I’m writing this – is to me the best way to get me to improve my time management, which has been deemed awful in the extreme.

It’s nice to be blogging here again, I think I will keep it up and make it more personal.

If you want to be a successful Freelancer you should expect to:

• Put on weight
• Work till late on a Friday night whilst your mates are down the pub
• Exist in poverty for many months whilst you get your reputation built
• Suffer from Carpel Tunnel Syndrome at least twice a year
• Lose about 30% of your off-line friends
• Be ripped off by at least two clients
• Lose that tan
• Waste your time with a lot of losers and wannabes who think that
  because it says they are an expert on their Twitter bio it makes it
  so.
• Never read a novel again
• When you go to sleep dream about google results page and scoring bigg on digg
• Think of time in a global 24 hour zone and something that is normal
• Spend hours and hours learning stuff that you later find out is now obsolete
• Learn that the so called seo/marketing/personal coach/blogging guru
  actually leaves in a trailer park in the bad side of town and is
  selling ebooks to pay off the debts he owes his crack dealing Mother
• Wonder why no one cares that you joined Twitter in it’s first month
  and that no one wants to hear that it’s not as good as it used to be

OK, now I have covered the good stuff, maybe we can do the bad in the next post