Something for the Weekend 18 July 2009

I am proud to present a special Something for the Weekend post this week. The reason it’s special is not only because it includes 10 great links rather than the usual five, but all the posts have been produced by my fellow students on the Alex Jeffreys coaching program. The standard of posts have  been nothing short of astounding, especially when you consider some of the people involved are completely new to blogging. Anyway, enough of me trying to steal their thunder, here are the posts which have really stood out for me this week. Enjoy.

A lot of the early coaching has centred around a solid foundation of planning so it is no surprise that a lot of blog content has reflected this so far. One post which caught my attention was by Alan Harris, who took this a step further and produced a video showing how he has used the wall in his hall as a gigantic planner board! It really is something else and I don’t think the missus would be too happy if I tried the same thing at my house!

A thought provoking post came from Karen Kalata who based an article around Alex’s quote: “an idiot with a plan will always beat a genius without one“. Unfortunately I have been that genius for way too long. I am happy to say that my days of flitting from one money making escapade to the next have come to an end!

Gil Dotan continued the planning theme with his #1 reason people fail online. It’s so easy to become a victim of information overload and you need to focus on what needs to be done rather than getting lost among the noise.

A lot of Alex’s coaching focuses on building a super responsive list and I enjoyed Andrew Vaughan’s nine things you need to create a list while Paul Hooper also produced a good video on list building.

Talking of videos, I cannot fail to be anything but impressed by Marcus Passey and his determination to succeed. He set a precident this week with not one but TWO introductory videos and I am looking forward to watching his on-screen presence grow in the coming weeks.

Neil Marsh weighed in with a rather hefty post on the art of blogging. His article includes 10 powerful tips on producing an effective blog and I particularly agree with his point on adding value to other people’s blogs. Since I have started commenting on other blogs, comments to mine have increased significantly!

Search engine optimisation is something all bloggers should consider because a lot of traffic will come via Google et al and Keith Purkiss outlined the importance behind ranking top for your name on the search engines.

Matt Wolfe, who has been blogging like a madman over the past two weeks, revealed some “sneaky” marketing tricks. Well, not so much sneaky, but ways you can add value to your customers in order to maximise your chances of earning affiliate commissions.

Finally, Roger Edwards wrote a great blog post about the first brainstorming session we had with Alex on Thursday night. Roger has proven himself to be a great story teller and I am looking forward to more of his writing.

Do you think I made the right choice with this week’s selection or do you think I missed out some great content by another student? Whatever your thoughts, please leave a comment below!