Who says you can't rank duplicate content?
June 26, 2008
On May 23rd I wrote a blog post that should have completely destroyed the myth that you can't rank duplicate content. You can.
My new blog post sharing site, ShareAPost.com has proven that duplicate content ranks well. The entire site is made up of 100% duplicate content: snippets of other people's blog posts that users can republish on their own blogs.
Just in case anyone still has any doubts about whether Google will send traffic to pages made up of duplicate content, here is the ShareAPost.com search engine traffic from May 19th to June 26th:
May
June
Almost 2,400 visitors from a variety of search engines (mostly Google) in just over one month's time — all generated from duplicate content. Syndication has been a standard in offline and online publishing for many years. There's no reason Google should ignore content just because it's been syndicated. As the above numbers show, Google does not ignore it at all!
As I've said before, I strongly advise going to ShareAPost.com and finding some quality posts to republish on your own blogs. Some of that Google love could be going to your syndicated pages, too.
Also, see my previous post on the subject for a cool trick to turn duplicate content into "unique" pages in Google's eyes.
Please post your thoughts and comments below.
Finding motivation in your business.
June 13, 2008
I hate to exercise. I really do. I feel good afterward, and I'm definitely getting in better shape because of it, but I hate it. It's a real chore for me. What do my exercise habits have to do with finding motivation in your business? Hang with me for a bit and it will all make sense. It may even be enlightening.
My son is going to be born in late July, and I knew I'd have to be in better shape to chase him around and prevent him from hurting himself. I know this is going to happen because he's my son, and I was a hand full. That's strong motivation to get in shape, right? Sure it is, but that didn't make it easy.
I'd get on the treadmill bound and determined to walk for 30 minutes, and I'd find myself getting bored out of my mind and irritated with the soreness in my muscles 15 minutes into it. Half the time I would just give up, and the other half was so aggravating that I vowed never to do it again. Of course, my motivation was strong, and so I'd try again the next day.
Then my family and I went to the movies to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I had read the Narnia series of books in the past, and the movie rekindled my interest in the series. So I got the full series of unabridged books for my iPod. But I'm a busy guy, and so I didn't have time to listen to them.
Lightbulb! I had 30 minutes a day of mind-numbing boredom to fill, so I started listening to the series while walking on the treadmill. I love the Narnia stories, and I get so wrapped up in listening to them while walking that I stop staring at the timer wishing it would move faster. In fact, now I often find myself not wanting to get off the treadmill because I'm in the middle of a good part! By coupling something I love to do with something I abhor, it made the task much easier to deal with. I'm very happy with the results in my energy level, as well as being able to listen to the stories I enjoy so much.
Let's face it: a successful business is rarely made up of only tasks that we love to do. There's always some real chores that are absolutely necessary. Why not apply the above lesson to your business-related tasks as well?
If you're working on something that you really don't like to do, break it up so you don't have to do it all at once. Put something in between that you love to do as a reward for your doing the dreaded task. That way you'll have something to look forward to. You'll have the needed motivation.
For instance, let's say you love to write articles, but hate to go through the drudgery of submitting them to the article sites. If that's the case, try writing an article and then immediately submitting it to the article sites, knowing that when you're done you can go write another article. If you wait until you have 20 articles written and then have to submit them all at once, the sheer magnitude of the chore will make it unbearable. But one at a time isn't so bad, is it?
Here's a personal example: I love to write code, but I get a lot less joy out of answering support requests. I have a fantastic support person now (Amin Motin), but there are usually some support requests each day that I need to handle personally. I make it a point to answer those tickets first, knowing that when it's done I can reward myself with what I love to do: write code. That gives me the needed incentive.
You probably do this kind of thing all the time in your daily life. It's just a matter of applying that same "reward yourself" principle to your business.
Here's a personal example of how I do this in day-to-day life: I'm not a fan of vegetables. I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy. But I also want to be healthy. So I always eat my veggies first. When they're out of the way and I can move on to the slab of steak or fried shrimp that I really love and still feel good about having eaten the healthy stuff.
I'd be much less inclined to eat those awful veggies after having already downed all of those delicious, golden brown stuffed shrimp from PappaDeaux's. There's a reason we teach our children to eat their food before dessert! Not only is the food more nutritious, but who wants to eat veggies after a wonderful slice of apple pie?
The same applies to your business. Get the tasks you consider chores out of the way first, that way you can concentrate on the aspects of your business that you love to do. If the dreaded tasks are very time consuming, then break them up into chunks. For instance, if you find writing a chore, but you love the challenge of link building, then create some content when you first start working and then focus on your link building for a while. After you feel great about your link building efforts, go back to writing for a bit.
Failure to get through the drudgery and then reward yourself with the "fun stuff" can result in deadlock. If you do the fun stuff first, then you've already "had your dessert (or fried shrimp!)" so the mere thought of tackling the other tasks is loathsome and you'll find every excuse possible to put it off until later. Take it a little bit at a time, followed by an enjoyable activity, and you'll be amazed at what you've accomplished at the end of the day.
Please post your thoughts in a comment below.
What it takes to succeed in business.
June 5, 2008
Depending on whose figures you're looking at, in the USA, 90% of all new small businesses will fail in their first 5 to 10 years. My personal experience with folks who are trying to "make it" online is that the failure rate is higher and faster. Why? Because when things don't go as planned many just give up and decide that they are unable to succeed on their own.
Is there a true key to success in running a business online? Yes, there is, and it's largely psychological.
My wife and I were browsing a local mall recently, as we occasionally do to get out of the house and do something fun. I'm not a shopper — I hate shopping — but I love bookstores, so I always make it a point to stop at the Borders bookstore when we go. My wife calls me a dork for doing it, but after checking for any new John Grisham novels I always head to the Science section.
This last time I found a fascinating book called The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, by Leonard Mlodinow. I love numbers, though I'm no mathematician, and this book is quite readable even if you cringe in fear when you hear the words "algebra" or "calculus."
The book discusses, in part, how the laws of randomness are at the heart of many successes that are often attributed to one person's abilities. To quote Mlodinow, "We all understand that genius doesn't guarantee success, but it's seductive to assume that success must come from genius."
Well if genius doesn't guarantee success, then what does?
Citing a 2005 Psychology Today article, Mlodinow later states that "psychologists have found that the ability to persist in the face of obstacles is at least as important a factor in success as talent."
Persistence is incredibly important when you're working for yourself. When you have a job, if there's a problem, you go to a manager or boss to help you solve the problem. When you're working for yourself, you have to take the initiative to fix the problem on your own. When you have a job, you earn a steady paycheck that you don't have to create. When you're working for yourself, it's up to you to ensure that you have enough work in the pipeline to keep the bills paid. There is a lot more stress and headache involved in being your own boss, especially in the formative years of your business.
Even if you're a super genius gifted with incredible talent, you're going to run into a lot of problems running a business. If you don't have the ability to persist in the face of those obstacles, you're going to fail, no matter how bright or talented you are.
This is particularly true in the online world. Many seem to believe that running a business online should be easy — but it's not. Doing business online typically does provide a greater level of flexibility and freedom, but it still requires a whole lot of good ol' fashioned (dare I say the four letter word?) work. This unexpected realization coupled with a lack of tenacity can quickly result in disillusionment and despondency.
Do people really believe that running a business online is easy? If you want evidence of this fallacious belief just look at all of the get rich quick schemes available online. Look at the top sellers in the ClickBank marketplace (especially the top Business to Business products). People promising riches for doing easy work like filling out surveys. "Common" sense should tell you that if it was that easy everyone would already be doing it, and yet these products continue to rake in money from countless people trying to chase the dream of self-employment.
The flip side of this psychological coin is that, even if you're just an "average Joe (or Jane)", with persistence and dedication you can succeed. Whether you've got a unique new idea of you're own or you're just replicating a successful method you've learned from some brilliant person, it's the persistence that's going to pay off for you.
Personally, it has taken me a few years of solid dedication, hard work, dozens of failures, sleepless nights, endless worry and loads of stress to get me to where I am now. And where is that?
I'm now at the point where I can spend 50-60 hours a month doing what really matters in life: volunteer work. Yes, I still work a lot (it's in my nature), but I can take my daughter to the arcade mid-morning on a weekday when we practically have the whole place to ourselves, and I can take several trips a year with my family without constantly worrying about my business because I have a fantastic support staff, and when my son is born in late July I won't have to ask anybody for time off to get to know him.
It is a dream, and it's one worth working hard for. Stick to it, keep trying despite obstacles and failures, and you'll get there, too (if you're not there already).
Let me close with a statement from Mlodinow's book that I particularly enjoyed: "It might seem daunting to think that effort and chance, as much as innate talent, are what counts. But I find it encouraging because, while our genetic makeup is out of our control, our degree of effort is up to us. And the effects of chance, too, can be controlled to the extent that by committing ourselves to repeated attempts, we can increase our odds of success."
Please post your thoughts in a comment below.
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Jonathan Leger has been earning his living online full-time since the fall of 2004. He regularly posts advice about search engine optimization (his current passion), AdSense and Internet Marketing. 
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