Before I get started, you’ve no doubt noticed the new theme (if you’re viewing via feed reader, click on over to see what I’m talking about). It’s the OneTheme design and I’m continuing to make modifications. So please bear with me as you might experience a few minor (hopefully) adjustments to be made.

If you’ve never heard of LinkedIn, then it might surprise you to know that it started long before Twitter came into being. It’s a social network for business professionals and is a fantastic way to connect with individuals who share the same interests as you. In fact, I give credit to it helping me get my foot into the door of my last two employers.

The Internet is filled with services designed to help make things easier for people, things that they’d do offline, but now can do online. LinkedIn is no different. How many times have you asked a buddy or family member if they know someone at some company you’re interested in working for? Or perhaps you’ve sought a way into a company to do business.

Well, LinkedIn allows you to do this on a level you’ve likely not experienced before!

I’ve been using LinkedIn for several years now and I finally captured my thoughts and tips into this free report that I want to give to you. If you’re already a free subscriber of mine, then I will send this to you shortly. But if you’re not, then take a moment to fill in the form below and download the report PLUS an added bonus on domain secrets I’ve collected over the years.

After reading the report, if you have any questions or additional tips, I’d be interested in hearing them. Just leave a comment below.

Information overload.

I’ve been wrapped up in that blanket for I don’t know how long and I’ve let it keep me in place the whole time. I recently discovered something about myself and I wonder if you might be able to relate.

I enjoy surfing the Web in search of things of interest or bits of wisdom that will make me a better person, a better Web publisher and marketer. To exclude myself from such knowledge would make my journey a lot harder. I’d sign up for this feed or that one, subscribe to so-and-so’s newsletter, etc.

Then one day I woke up and realized I was overwhelmed with all that information. It was too much to process and left me spending more time trying to figure it all out rather than putting the things it taught me into practice.

Don’t get me wrong: those are worthy endeavors, and things I still do, but now I do it in moderation. In fact, I’ve even pruned my list of information sources. Now, instead of having my feed reader constantly showing me I have 1,000+ unread feeds, I’ve been able keep them under control by unsubscribing to a great many of them.

Instead of being bombarded with all the newsletters I’d get in my inbox that sold the same thing as everyone else, I unsubscribed to many of them as well. All this adds up to more time for me to do things that I can profit from.

Have I reached the pinnacle of all Internet marketing knowledge? Heck no! Class never ends. But I have reached a fork in the road. One path leads to success. The other path leads to the false expectation that something will be different if I just keep doing the same thing just a little longer. Friends, it doesn’t work that way. If we don’t like what we’re getting out of life, then we need to change what we’re doing to get something different. Period.

While quenching my thirst for knowledge, I had been waiting for a red flare to go up. It didn’t and it wasn’t going to either. I have to be that red flare. And if you’ve allowed yourself to float aimlessly on a sea of information, waiting for the wind to blow you to shore, then you need to be your own red flare, too.

You’ve heard the saying, “Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” Well, sure he does, but only if he decides to fish!

We learn by doing. We learn by seeing and listening to other people do things. But if it is our goal to do what they’re doing, we must not be content to just sit on the sidelines. We need to get off our butts and do something with what we’ve learned and stop thinking we’re doing something just by submersing ourselves in data. That’s why I decided to stop the noise and started doing things myself.

Have you experienced this? What are some of the ways you’ve handled it?

Photo by Asif Akbar.

Well, January has come and gone, and for some people that means so have their New Year’s resolutions. But maybe you fall into the category of people who have kept them. Perhaps you’ve received a glimmer of hope that says, “Hey, maybe I CAN do this” whatever “this” is.

I don’t recall that there’s ever been a month where I haven’t posted to MeAndMyDrum, but this past January will win the prize on that. It’s not that I decided not to post. Instead, it’s that I’ve been consumed with my other goals. I was tired of saying, “If only I…” or “Just one more article and I’ll have the knowledge I need to…” So, as much as it pained me to withdraw from MAMD temporarily, I felt it was the right thing to do so I could have something to reflect on and motivate me to achieve the other goals that I have as well as share what I’ve learned with you.

Now, I’ve only scratched the surface, but at least this year I actually wrote down some goals. I even made a quick and dirty mindmap of them. They’re probably no different than some of your’s like building a stronger income from my online activities. And on the personal side, there’s the ever common “lose weight declaration”.

As for the new online goals I’ve set, it’s too soon to tell if what I have done so far will be successful. They’ll need some time to incubate. But at least I started them. And you know what? Even if they fail, I will have at least learned from them to make a better go of it the next time. It’s easy to fall into a pit of despair when we fail, and it often leaves us feeling paralyzed thinking we can’t do something and damages our motivation to continue. If you feel that way, then it’s time to change that. There’s too much talent in you to have it waste away on believing your doubts.

Attitude is very important. That’s a no-brainer and it’s always been something I have known, but this is the first time I’ve actually DONE something about it. Okay, so what if I failed at something I tried last week, last month, or even years ago? Am I going to let my history define my future? Up until this year, I have, but not any more!

What are some things that you do to stay on track?

Photo by David Ritter