OK. It’s confession time.

As you probably noticed, I kind of fell off the blogging wagon over the holiday weekend.  I’m not going to make any excuses.  I’m just going to pick myself up, dust off, and get back on that particular horse.

The only bright spot in my five-day hiatus (from a blogging perspective, that is; from a “me having a great time” perspective, it was all bright) was Saturday’s episode of Blog Whisperer Radio with special guest Marilyn Jess of the Speaking Of… blog.  So I guess it was really only a four-day hiatus, since podcasts count as blog posts.  Right?

Which reminds me: I also recorded a podcast with Joel D Canfield for his CVO Source website on Friday.  We talked about how there really is no checklist for success.  It was a fantastic conversation, but it’s locked behind an iron curtain, now.  Well, not really; just a membership curtain.

Maybe I’ll have Joel as a guest on my show again so we can have a more public conversation about that topic.  Or you could just sign up for CVO Source for a month, download that podcast (and all the other cool stuff Joel and his better half, Sue, have posted up there), then cancel your subscription.  It’ll be the best $4.95 you’ve spent this month, even if you’re not a virtual assistant.

So I guess it was technically only three days off, and they weren’t even consecutive, so I’m going to have to take back the “epic” part and just call it a “tiny, insignificant fail that really isn’t even worth mentioning.”  Although I think that’s probably too long for a post title.

Anyhow, whatever we’re going to call it, it really doesn’t matter all that much since it’s over now and I’m back in the saddle with this post on the Blog Whisperer’s Blog where I compare myself to James Taylor’s song “Handy Man”.  There’s even a video.  Go check it out because that’s a truly awesome song and I’m really happy to be associated with it, even if it’s only in my head.

The 30-Day Blogging Challenge is going pretty well, with days 6 and 7 seeing updates outside of home base here on the Motivation 101 Blog.  Here’s what happened:

Day 6 – Saturday, 11/20/10

Saturday saw the sixth installment of Blog Whisperer Radio, a new BlogTalkRadio show dedicated to the art of blogging.  My guest this week was Marci Nault of the 101 Dreams Come True blog.  Marci and I chatted about how to quiet the voices in your head so you can blog with the voice of your soul.  You can listen to the full episode by clicking here.

Day 7 – Sunday, 11/21/10

Over on the Blog Whisperer’s Community Blog, I wrote a post about the 5 reasons I think every salesperson should have their own blog.  Have a look and let me know what you think.  Do you agree or disagree?

That’s it for this update.  Thanks for tuning in!

I’ve been enjoying the looks on the faces of internet marketing folks I meet when I tell them about the two domain names that I registered this week: JustSayNoToSEO.com and SEOIsUseless.com.

Some stare in wide-eyed horror, failed by words, others gasp and clutch at their hearts, and still others start to hyperventilate.  It’s pretty funny, if you’re the kind of person who enjoys upsetting apple carts.  Which I am.

The way I see it, many of the SEO practices out there are a lot like the “closing techniques” and other slimy sales practices that so-called sales experts teach; they’re designed to shortcut anything that resembles effort.  I learned a long time ago that shortcuts like that don’t work in the long term.

For a sales professional to be truly successful, she needs to know a lot more than a couple of lame closes; she needs to have a great product, to pay attention to her customers, to ask questions, to follow through on her commitments, all of which take effort and hard work.

The same is true for someone who wants to have a successful blog or website: he needs to have great content, to pay attention to his audience, to ask questions and listen, to follow through on his commitments.  Again, it’s hard work and it takes time and effort to get there.

And we don’t want to work hard.  Somewhere along the line, working hard lost its appeal and was replaced by the idea of just “attracting” what you want.  Don’t get me wrong: I’m a firm believer in the power of attraction.  I just know that the best way to attract what you want is to exert effort, not just stand around waiting around for it to show up.

Suck it up, people.  There is no such thing as success without work.  You have to do something.

So, what are you going to do?

Just so you know that I’m keeping my commitment to post something every day for the next 30 days, check out this post over at The Blog Whisperer‘s blog.  It’s about the fallacy of writing what your readers want to read.

Do you agree or disagree?

OK.  Enough is enough.  I’m ready to be a blogger again.

Seriously.  As soon as I take on this Blog Whisperer identity and the extra work starts rolling in, I completely abandon the one thing that’s made it all possible, the one thing that I love to do: blogging.  Well, that’s over.  Not the extra work, mind you…just the “not blogging” nonsense.

So I’m throwing down the gauntlet: here and now, I commit to writing at least one post per day, whether it’s on this blog or on The Blog Whisperer blog.  In fact, some days it’ll probably be both.  Even if it’s just one word (which would really surprise some people), you will see a post worth reading.

Don’t get me wrong, though; this isn’t about writing posts just for the sake of writing them.  It’s about reminding myself that what I love to do more than anything else in the world is to share ideas.

So there you have it.  Follow the madness here, and if you haven’t already, subscribe to the Blog Whisperer’s RSS feed so you don’t miss any of the posts.  And don’t just stand there; feel free to join the conversation, or to start a 30-day blogging challenge of your own.  Because I know you have great ideas to share, and I’m dying to hear them!

See you on the other side!  (For those of you keeping track, that’ll be December 14th…yikes!)

Cross-posted to The Blog Whisperer Community Blog

OK, I really need someone to tell me where all the days are going.  Have you ever seen that 80′s movie, Looker?  I saw it something like two dozen times on HBO when I was a kid.  The bad guys had this really cool weapon that you could point at someone and basically freeze them for a few minutes, so that when they woke up they’d feel like they had moved forward in time; you could also smack them around while they were “frozen”.

Yeah…that’s kind of what these past few weeks have been like.  I keep waking up thinking “Now what the devil happened to Tuesday?  I could have sworn I left it here somewhere…”

I blame The Blog Whisperer.  Since that guy showed up, I’ve been introduced to the meaning of busy…and a lot of new clients.  Don’t get me wrong; it’s definitely a good thing; in fact, it’s exactly what I wanted. I’m just in that adjustment period, I guess, trying to figure out how to keep everything moving forward and not lose track of anything important along the way.

I’ve written here before about the fact that I don’t really believe in work-life balance.  I’ve made a conscious decision that, for the foreseeable future at least, I’m going to throw myself whole-hog into my work.  It helps that I love my work; I can’t imagine I’d be as motivated to do something that I didn’t love, let alone something that I hated with every fiber of my being.

So I’m thinking it might be time to bring in hired help.  Let me be clear that it feels WAY too early to even be thinking about this, but I’ve gotta be honest: every time I engage with a new client, there’s a sarcastic little voice in my head that says “No problem…five hours sleep was getting to be a little much anyway.”  I’m at the point where I can either enlist some help or stop growing.  I think you know which way I’m leaning; after all, if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

This isn’t really the post I set out to write; it’s funny how that happens, isn’t it?  Anyhow, I guess this means I’ll be looking for a way to outsource some stuff.  Has anyone been down this path?  What did you do?  And how has it worked out for you?  Any advice you can leave in the comments is greatly appreciated.

Last week, I signed up for what looks to be a cool new service called SeededBuzz (I saw that a few of my friends had “liked” their ad on Facebook, so score 1 for the effectiveness of Facebook ads).  The basic idea is that you can submit your best blog posts (called “planting a seed”) , and other bloggers can pick up on the theme and write posts of their own based on your “seed” post (otherwise known as “buzzing” your “seed”).  Once you get a handle on the goofy terminology, it can be a great way to meet, connect with, and befriend other bloggers.  And it works!

Meet Tia Peterson, creator of BizChickBlogs.  Tia knows her stuff: she’s been designing websites and messing with WordPress since graduating college, although she won’t tell us how long ago that was.  Her tips and advice for bloggers are spot on.  I met Tia via (heh…that rhymes) SeededBuzz, and this is why I love blogging: it’s all about the connections!

Anyhow, a few weeks ago Tia wrote a post that considered the question of why so many blogs fail.  I think that’s an interesting question, especially considering my new Blog Whisperer project.  The reason I started MyBlogWhisperer.com was the fact that so many of the blogs I was setting up for people were left vacant once they were completed.  When I would ask the owners of said blogs what was going on, I’d get different versions of the same answer: they felt like they didn’t have anything worth saying.

And I think that’s the number one reason most blogs fail: FEAR.  So many of us have been filling our heads with negative self-talk for so long that we refuse to believe that anyone would want to hear anything we have to say.  I’m here to tell you, though, that they do!  Believe it or not, there are thousands of people just like you who are looking for someone to give voice to their thoughts and feelings.  That someone can be you, if you’ll just get out of your own way.

And it doesn’t stop with bloggers. For so many of us, fear is the only thing between us and the success we desire.  The object of our desire, whether wealth, fame, a satisfying relationship, or a prosperous business, is right there, ripe for the taking; and yet we’re afraid to reach out and pluck it off the branch.

Isn’t about time you broke your mind out of the dungeon of fear?  Isn’t it time you conquered your fear, once and for all, and let your light shine?  I think it is.  I think it’s time for all of us to reconsider the power we give to our fear, and start to take some of that power back.  Stay tuned for suggestions on how you can do just that.

What do you think?  How has fear held you back, and how do you plan to reclaim your power?