Want to experience an interesting experiment in how our brains work?

On a recent blog post, 20 Surefire Ways to Beat Writer’s Block, we were discussing methods for working through write’s block. Mark Tillman Tillison of Tillman Tillison Consulting (sorry for the typos Mark) offered the very interesting idea that:

…writing (or typing) using colour can also be very effective (in overcoming writer’s block).

This works because creative and technical processes are handled by the two different hemispheres of the brain. Using colour helps the two hemispheres to work together.

Funny, I’d never thought about it using different colors to help stimulate different parts of the brain when I write. I’d love to know more about it. Have you had any experience with this?

What I found even more interesting was a link to The ColorText Brain Teaser that LaurenMarie of Creative Curio added during the conversation.

The ColorText Brain Teaser was put together by Phillip Miller Eberz who say something similar posted on a middle school wall in Texas.

The basic idea is to see how easy it is to trick the brain through association. You have to try it…

Below is an example of The ColorText Brain Teaser. You do it by saying the color of each word. Be careful not to say the color named by the word. Example: if you see Blue you would say “red” because the color of the word blue is red. It’s harder than it looks. Give it a try…

Now, I have warn you, it’s very easy to trick yourself. Try saying the colors out loud. Or better yet, say them in front of someone else so they can check your accuracy. Then, tell what you think.

I didn’t get six words in without making a mistake. And I’ve done this a dozen times and haven’t made it through once without making a mistake.

I’d love to hear how you do. How far did you get before making a mistake? Tell me about your experience.

How many times have your read a great blog post and have wanted to add a comment, only to get to the bottom of the page and find that you have to login?

I don’t login. Which means, I don’t leave a comment. Which means, no conversation and little chance at building a relationship with that blogger.

I think this is a bad idea. So do others. Forcing people to login to your blog just so they can leave a comment is ridiculous.

Think about it for a moment… If you write a blog post, you want people to read it, right? Otherwise, why write it? And if you offer comments at all, you’re probably interested in getting some sort of feedback, right? Otherwise you’d be like Seth Godin and not do comments at all.

So why would you make it difficult for me to leave a comment on your blog? Why would you force me to register and login? All that does is setup a number of barriers between you and I; your post and my commentary. Your making me take extra time just so I can share my thoughts on something you wrote on your site. Where’s the benefit for me?

If you have a business blog, think about the message you’re sending. If you’re making it difficult for me to interact with you on your blog, how else might you make our interaction difficult? How important will I really be to you as a client if I’m not that important as a blog commenter?

As you can tell, I think it’s poor judgment to make commenters register and login. There’s really no benefit for the commenter. It’s bad enough they have to fill-in a form each time they leave a comment on my blog. But at least they have the freedom to include what they like.

I’ve ranted on about this, what do you think? Do you comment on sites that force you to register? Do you force your commenters to register? I’d love to know why. Maybe there’s a reason beyond what I’m looking at. Or maybe it’s just a bad idea. Let’s talk about it…

Does blog comment spam really work?

I guess it must because it just keeps increasing. And not only increasing, but it’s getting harder to spot – especially for those of us who often get a lot of comments and get a lot of spam.

Take a look at this image. Look at it closely.

Looks like a benign comment at first glance, right? But look closely at the text in the next image:

Notice all the little blue underlines under some of the characters? Each one of those is a link. Hard to see, huh? And if you weren’t looking for them, you might think this is a legitimate comment and let it through.

But it’s not a legitimate comment – it’s spam. All told, this comment had more than 25 links in it. It’s just, as you can see, they’re under individual characters – making them hard to spot at a glance.

This comment spam thing is a real pain in the rear. Darren Rowse even wrote about the cost of comment spam to our blogging. Can you imagine how much spam Problogger or Scobleizer get?

That’s why I’m siding with Lorelle:

You cannot stop comment spam on your blog…Comment spam can only be stopped when comment spammers are stopped. The efforts you make on your blog only stop comment spam from reaching the public eye.

…I’ve put out a call repeatedly to bloggers (read her post on The Blog Herald) to use the power of their blogging voices to put an end to the rewards of being a comment spammer. We need to put comment spammers out of business. Anyone listening?

As a united voice, I believe that the same creativity and sense of community spirit that built MyBlogLogs, MySpace, FaceBook, and Digg can put their energy into stopping the virus that infects all of us.

We know what spam bots do and can watch their behavior. I agree with Lorelle, we can’t stop spamming unless we stop spammers. So what can we do about it? Any ideas? Know anyone who might have an idea?

What is success?

It’s always interesting to compare the words success with it’s perceived opposite – failure:

Success: the accomplishment of an aim or purpose

Failure: lack of success

source: New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd Edition

Those definitions make sense, right? Failure is the opposite of success – would you not agree? But is it always true?

If you think of success as a destination – a place to arrive too – I can see that not arriving at that destination could be thought of as a failure. Yet framing success and failure this way leaves no room for growing and learning. And it leaves even less room for trusting the process.

So how can we learn and grow if we don’t try things; have experiences? I’m not so sure we really can. I mean, I can read books, watch videos and attend seminars and playing tennis. I could become a virtual encyclopedia of playing tennis. But all that knowledge means very little when I hit my first forehand out of the playing area.

You see, I’m a huge proponent of the process. The process is all those steps you take when you move from idea to action. It’s the experience of putting what you know – and don’t know – into play and seeing what happens. It’s the place where real growth happens.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.” I couldn’t agree more.

Yet, somehow, in our modern life, we’ve seem to be overridden with ideas of perfection and doing it right (or not doing it wrong). We can’t fail. And we look poorly at people who do. We don’t see someone gaining valuable experiences toward success. Rather we see someone who failed. Heck, we don’t even acknowledge the bold and scary move of putting your ideas into action. Instead, we cower behind our false sense of safety; looking out to sea from the comfort of our park bench.

For me, success is about being in the game. It’s about not giving up. It’s about continuing to move toward the next step in the process – even if that next step is in a completely different direction.

About failure, Ben Franklin Thomas Edison said, “I haven’t failed. I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

About success, Booker T. Washington said, “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as the obstacles which he has overcome.”

And about the process, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”

What do you say? What does success – and failure – mean to you?

I was just getting used to Web 2.0.

Want to know what Web 3.0 is going to be about?

So did an audience member at the Seoul Digital Forum back in May when he asked Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt to define Web 3.0. Schmidt’s first response was that Web 2.0 is nothing more than “a marketing term” – which I partly agree with. I think Web 2.0 used in the mass media to create hype is a marketing term. But when I consider Web 2.0 from a user’s perspective (gotta watch this video as well), I can honestly see the difference from the web of yesteryear.

But Web 3.0 already. My oh my!

Schmidt gave a great answer, which you can watch in the video below. What his answer boils down too is much easier application building along with much more robust access to data. And, of course, that data will be stored in ‘the cloud.’

Take a look at the 2 minute video and tell me what you think…

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How well can your clients, customers and prospects explain what you do?

This is one of the questions that every business owner needs to be asking themselves all the time.

Too often, we focus so much on developing our business that we forget why we’re developing our business in first place. Sure, we want to make a profit – that goes without saying. Yet the most likely reason any of us got into business is because we believe we have a unique and better approach to solving a people’s problems.

Take a moment and think about all the products you see advertised in mass media. Each one tries to solve a problem. Think about Gatorade, IcyHot or Midol and I’m sure you can tell me what problems each can solve for me – even if you haven’t used the product yourself.

Sure, each of these products have massive marketing budgets, catchy slogans and world-wide mass appeal (what women doesn’t want relief from her symptoms around her period). Yet they’ve also clearly communicated the problems each can solve. And they do it so well that you’d have no problem explaining to someone else that IcyHot can relieve muscle pain.

But what would your clients and customers say about your business? Is it clear what problems you can help them solve? Not just clear to you, but clear to them. And clear enough so they’d have no problem explaining what you do to someone else?

If they don’t know, why would they work with you in the first place? And if your clients can’t explain how you’ve helped them, how can they tell their friends?

Did you see the response Liz Strauss gave to my latest one2one conversation question? I asked her how she keeps clarity in her business?

…clarity in business and in life comes from knowing where I’ve been, where I’m going, and what I value on the days that tragedy strikes…

It’s a great read.

So what question did Liz ask us at the end of her post? Well, it’s a goodie…

What do YOU wish for your business when it grows up?

Have you ever thought about it that way? Have you ever considered that your business, like your life, goes through stages of development?

A mastermind partner asked me a few months ago where on the human development scale I considered my business. I told him that my business was in its late twenties.

Having been a web designer for more than decade, I’ve certainly grown from infancy and toddlerhood. About 4 years ago, I’d say, my business was in its early teens – where I was growing out of just being a child and now taking on greater responsibility.

That’s also the time I was transitioning from being just a website designer to a full-spectrum, web-based business developer. And that’s what really brought my business into its latter teenage years. Now, rather than just building websites for my clients, I began teaching them how to use their websites to actually grow their business. That was a huge step in my development – just as our teenage years are.

I’d say it’s about two years ago, as I began doing more consulting, coaching and teaching – without necessarily building a website – that I entered my early twenties. Now, I had some direction and was branching out into something new, yet I was a bit raw in my approach.

Then along comes blogging and social media. Having been someone who built a successful business simply from growing and nurturing mutually beneficial relationships, it was natural to take to blogging. But the rate my business has expanded has been a surprise. It’s changing rapidly. That’s why I say my business is in its late twenties – time of the Saturn Return (I just wish there was a better name for it).

As my business prepares become thirty, I continue to refine what it is I can do most best for my clients. I’m a fine web designer and a pretty good coder – and I’ll continue to build websites for the foreseeable future.

Yet anyone I speak with quickly learns that my real talents are in consulting with, coaching and teaching my clients how to use the web to meet their business needs. After all, what good is having a website or a blog if it’s not producing results for you? What’s worse is what’s the point in spending lots of money for a beautiful design that gets you little or no return.

What I’ve found is that while most people have or want a website, few really know how to use it to grow their business. They buy a site, or put up a blog on TypePad, write some copy and wait. But there’s more to do – more to understand – than just putting out a website. That’s where I can help.

So how will this mature? Or in Liz’s question – what do I wish from my business when it grows up?

If I look backward from the future, I’ll have taught countless businesses how to use the internet and social media to engage in conversations with their target market that lead to mutually beneficial relationship and increased profits. While my focus market has been solopreneurs who are ready for a large increase in business, I’ve also helped a variety of larger companies create strategies for building stronger relationships with their customers.

Personally, I do most of my work by phone or computer (or whatever cool new device Apple creates) which has given me ample time to be a good husband and a very hands-on father. I have traveled a bit for work, though not too much and I often take one of my kids with me so they can see what I do (okay, really for more bonding time).

My home life is relaxing and gentle. I often begin my days with a brisk hike in the mountains behind our home or a paddle in the lake a few miles away. And more than anything, I have a nice separation between my home life and my office life. Though we do take longer vacations from time to time when I work a few hours while we’re away just to keep my clients moving forward.

I don’t see myself ever really retiring. Though at some point I’ll likely decrease the number of clients I work with at any one time. I’ve worked hard and made a nice, comfortable amount of money, but I haven’t sacrificed my family nor recreation to get there. Looks like I just found the next evolution of my business…

…Back to today, I do have a blog design to finish for a client who’s wants to hire me for the next six months as her blog coach. See how this all begins?

So, my question to Liz (and to you) is:

How can social media/blogging help businesses stay� customer-centered?

If you got this far in reading, I’d love to carry on this conversation in the comment box. I’ll kick it off, and please join me.�

I love my blog.

Whenever I have something on my mind, it listens. If I need to explore a business idea, it patiently let’s me fumble around until I get it. If I’m down, it picks me up. And if I’m feeling inflated, I know it will bring me back to earth.

I love my blog. It’s a life-long friend I can really trust. But should I date my blog? Won’t that mess everything up?

Some, like Rory Sullivan, Kevin Mulldoon, George Manty and Google’s Matt Cutts think dating your blog is a necessity. Rory’s opinion is that dating:

“…makes the material seem timeless.The problem is with the word “seem”. Removing the time stamp is a trick, a gimmick.”

Yet, there are some, like Steve Pavlina, Dan & Jennifer, and the folks at Freelance Switch, that feel it’s unnecessary to date your blog. Daniel Scocco quotes Darren Rowse, who recently stopped dating his Digital Photography School blog, as saying:

“If the content is timeless and not ‘newsy’ in nature I think that removing the timestamp from a blog is a very worthwhile thing to do.”

And Maki, of DoshDosh fame, has also removed in the same post is quoted as saying:

“I don’t really have a concrete reason why I removed the time stamp, except that it doesn’t make the blog posts look dated. Going without dates also affects your marketing potential. For instance, it might make it easier to promote material on social voting/bookmarking websites.”

If you take a look at DoshDosh you’ll see that Maki had decided to date his posts on his homepage only. He doesn’t date his individual posts, however.

Personally, I like Maki’s approach. I just wonder – is it fair to my blog to only date it on the homepage?

What do you think?

What are you gaining from social networking?

For some, social networking is a way of life. They use it to promote themselves and keep the channels of conversation and relationship open, posting many times a day on many different networks. Some are even building their own.

For others, though, social networking is just a time waster and offers no real benefit to their business or blogging. Some have even gone as far to say that having a large network is all about ego.

So what do I think?

I think social networking is a tool – just as a blog or a website is a tool. The tool on its own is neither good nor bad. It’s how the tool is used that decides its value in your business or personal life.

You know the old saying about a knife. A knife can be used to cut the bread to feed people. Yet that same knife can be used to kill people. But is the knife bad or good? No, it’s just a knife. It’s just a tool.

Personally, I don’t think social media is a waste of time. And I’m certainly not doing it to boost my ego. I’m interested in conversation and relationships. So outside of my blog is there a better place to spend my time building relationships?

Social networking is just a tool. How are you using this tool?

Feel free to add me to your social network and I’ll reciprocate:
Facebook • StumbleUpon • Netscape • MyBlogLog • LinkedIn • Pownce • Twitter • BUMPzee

Want to know how to overcome your fear of writing, writer’s block or the obsession with getting the right words?

Well, Andrea, over a Baby Steps…To Getting Started Online Today, has a great post that might just be the best copywriting tip I’ve seen.

She says, “You allow your subconscious to do the work for you.”

Pretty simple, huh? But what does it mean?

Well, for me, it means getting out of the way of making your words perfect. When I’m writing a blog post, I’m not writing for a Pulitzer or to recreate the English language with flowing prose.

Rather, I’m looking to express my thoughts, ideas, opinions and knowledge just as I am…just as if we were having a conversation. That’s the way I approach writing – as a conversation…a conversation with you.

So, forget all the rules you learned in school (though spelling, punctuation and simple grammar are quite helpful). Forget that your 7th grade English teacher told you math was your subject not writing (yep, happened to me). And just write. Write how you speak. In other words, have a conversation with your readers.

And when you feel like you’re writing in a conversational style with your readers, then check out these resources to help you go to the ‘next level:”

• Brian Clark’s Copywriting 101
• Brian Clark’s Magnetic Headlines Series
• Okay, basically any post on Copyblogger
• Darren Rowse’s How to Be a More Creative Blogger – Methods of Creativity, How to Write Home Run Posts
• Lorelle VanFossen’s posts on ProBlogger Blogging Tips: Writing Purposeful Content, Telling Your Story With Words and Images and Blogging Is About Writing
• Leo Babauta’s The 4 Pillars of Writing Exceptional Blogs
• John Wesley’s How to Write Something Worth Reading
• Daniel Scocco’s How to Use Punctuation Correctly
• Aaron Wall’s Less Writing, Higher Quality

Really, there’s tons of great posts on copywriting in the blogosphere. These are only a few.

What are you favorite posts? When sitting down to write, what’s really worked for you? And what do you think of the ‘best copywriting tip ever?’ Is it?